The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio and telecom regulator TRAI on the PIl complaining blatant violations and back-door entry in the telecom sector. Citing the preliminary findings of the CAG, the NGO Centre for Public Interest litigation said Ambani firm’s illegal operations and entry in the telecom sector had caused more than Rs40,000 crore to the public exchequer.
Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, argued that though CAG had pointed out its findings to the Telecom department, the government was protecting Reliance Jio and had not taken any action.
The Pioneer was the first to report the matter in January this year about the CAG’s preliminary findings on Mukesh Ambani firm’s backdoor entry, violations and government’s move to pave the way for creating monopoly in the broadband sector for Relaince Jio by withdrawing State-run firms BSNl and MTNl from the scenario.
In mid 2010, during 3G and BWA auction, a little known firm Infotel won the pan-Indian license for the BWA spectrum and hours after the auction, Government allowed Mukesh to take over the firm. Seeking a court-monitored CBI probe on the favoritism to the Ambani firm, Bhushan said entire rules and regulations were flouted by the government to protect the private operator. In March 2013, the telecom ministry allowed Reliance Jio to operate voice services also, resulting in huge loss to the exchequer. The company had license only for broadband operations. The petition said the wrong doings happened during A Raja and Kapil Sibal’s tenure.
“The way this whole process has been pushed shows the footprint of Reliance and a pliant Government… From the sequence of events as per the CAG’s report it is evident that it was a well-planned strategy of Reliance Industries ltd where initially TRAI, and later the DoT officers and the Telecom Minister conspired to cheat the Government for undue favours to a private party,” said the petition.