First PIl in 2G Scam was filed by a telecom litigant Arvind Gupta in mid 2009 in Delhi High Court. He withdrew the case in a mysterious circumstances
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in November 2008 filed a complaint to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking sanction for Prosecution of Raja
In late 2009, STel owner Sivasankaran won a case in Delhi High Court which declared that the spectrum allotment was arbitrary and change of cut-off date for submitting bids was ‘illegal’. The Department of telecom challeneged the HC order in the Supreme Court. Swamy filed an intervention petition in the case apprehending that Sivasrankaran and Raja will settle for a compromise. His fears were justified after Shivshankaran gave an affidaivit not to pursue the case after the DoT armitwisted by him stopping the mobile phone operation run by STel. The SC didn't stay the Delhi HC order
On CVC's direction, the CBI registers an FIR in 2G Scam in October 2009 without mentioning any names and conducted raid at DoT Headquarters Sanchar Bhavan. However, under obvious politicial pressure, the CBI was stopped in track from proceeding further.
Subramanian Swamy approached the Delhi High Court in May 2010 complaining inaction by the Prime Minister on his petitions for granting sanction for prosecution of A Raja. In July 2010, the HC rejected his petition on the CBI argument that they were investigating the case. Swamy also filed another petition for cancellation of all of 122 licences citing a series of violations. The Delhi HC rejected Swamy's petition on technical groundsciting technical errors and gave Swamy the liberty to file the petition again in July 2010
In july 2010, Delhi High Court also rejected Prashant Bhushan's petition demanding a probe in 2G Scam. Bhushan had also alleged lobbyist Nira Radia meddle in the telecom licence allotment
pMeanwhile, the auction of 3G and BWA Spectrum fetched the Government Rs.1.06 lakh crore.
pIn September 2010, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and Ashok Ganguly issued notices to A.Raja, the Centre and CBI and Income Tax on Prashant Bhushan's appeal. In September 2010, Subramanian Swamy also joins Bhushan and filed an appeal on Manmohan Singh's failure to decide on grant of sanction for prosecuting Raja and cancelling the spectrum licences. On their plea, in October 201, the Supreme Court agreed for monitoring of the CBI probe. From then onward, the 2G scam engulfed the UPA II regime.
CAG Submitted a report on 2G Scam describing a loss to exchequer amounting to Rs.1.76 lakh crores on November 8, 2010 and Raja was forced to resign on November 14, 2014
In December 2010, the Supreme Court started direct monitoring of 2G Scam and appointed Investigating Officers for CBI and Enforcement Directorate and established Special 2G Court to work on daily basis. The Sc also banned all other Courts from interfering into 2G Scam related matters. OP Saini was appointed as Special Judge of the 2G Court. The Apex Court also appointed senior lawyer UU lalit as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP). later in 2014, Anand Grover was appointed as SPP, when UU lalit was elevated as Supreme Court Judge
In February 2012, Supreme Court cancelled the allotment of all the 122 licences and ordered for auction of all natural resources in future. UPA Government went for Presidential Reference against the SC verdict. The five-member Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia ratified the SC verdict and directed that all natural resources should be allotted through auction only
This was replicated in the Coal Scam Judgment which cancelled all licenses and directed for auction of coal mines.
Raja allotted 122 licences for just Rs.9200 crores. The auctions from 2010 to 2016 gave Rs.3.6 lakh crores from Telecom spectrum
