India’s Supreme Court upholds 2G licence cancellation

India’s Supreme Court yesterday quashed an appeal by several local operators calling for it to review its controversial decision two months ago to cancel a swathe of 2G licences.

The review had been requested by operators Uninor, Sistema Shyam, Idea Cellular, Etisalat DB, S-Tel, Tata Teleservices and Videocon, which were among the players affected by the court’s decision to revoke 122 regional licences.

The court ruled in February that the award of these licences in 2008 had been “totally arbitrary and unconstitutional.” The administration at the time – led by disgraced former telecom minister A Raja – is accused of selling-off the 2G licences on a first-come-first served basis and potentially costing the country the billions it would have made if it had conducted a competitive bidding auction.

The order gave the affected networks four months to wind down operations, and some foreign investors – including Etisalat, Batelco and Telenor – have already announced they are exiting the market.