SC proposes to cancel Aircel's 2G licence

The Supreme Court on Friday proposed to cancel the 2G licence granted to Aircel if the owner of Maxis, the Malaysia-based Anantha Krishnan, who bought the majority shares of the Indian telecom company, and his one-time key aide and Director Augustus Ralph Marshal fail to present themselves before it.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar also restrained the transfer of 2G spectrum originally granted to Aircel to any other entity.

Proposing to cancel the licence, the court said that Krishnan and Marshal would not be allowed to frustrate the due course of law by avoiding to appear before the court.

The court said the Ministry of Information Technology would devise ways and means by which the 2G licence originally granted to Aircel could be provisionally transferred to any other service provider, so that subscribers might not suffer any adverse consequences.

The bench said that it would be open to Krishnan and Marshal to appear before the court in Delhi, failing which it would pass its proposed order.

The court made it clear that Krishnan and Marshal would not be permitted to raise any issue of financial loss, that they might suffer on account of the proposed cancellation of the 2G licence and spectrum granted to Aircel in November 2006.

The court directed the next hearing of the matter on February 3.