122 telecom licences cancelled in India given allegedly corrupt award process

India’s Supreme Court has cancelled 122 telecommunications licences awarded to companies in 2008.

The licences were issued by former minister A Raja, who is accused of mis-selling bandwidth in what has been called India’s biggest corruption scandal. Raja denies wrongdoing.

Government auditors say the scandal cost the country about US$40 billion.

The judges also ordered a court to decide whether home minister P Chidambaram should be investigated. Opposition MPs accuse Chidambaram of failing to prevent the scandal when he was finance minister. He denies any wrongdoing.

Raja is currently on trial for fraud.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for mobile telephones with 893 million subscriptions.

Reports say today’s verdict is likely to affect about five per cent of connections used by mobile phone customers.  India’s telecom regulator says the affected subscribers can be transferred to other mobile operators.  Some of the companies affected by the court order include Loop, Videocon, Idea Cellular, Tata Telecom, Uninor and Swan.