The one-man committee, looking into policies and procedures followed by the Telecom Ministry, has asked DoT for information on various issues including allocation of spectrum to all operators between 2001 and 2009.
The Justice Shivraj Patil committee was set up by Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to look into the policies and suggest if they were followed in a transparent manner.
Justice Patil, a retired Supreme Court judge, has also asked for documents explaining circumstances under which the new National Telecom Policy was formulated in 1999 and subsequent introduction of the fourth cellular mobile licence in 2001.
As part of NTP’99, the then government had shifted telecom operators to revenue share regime from fixed licence fee and Mr. Sibal has alleged that this had caused a revenue loss of Rs 1.43 lakh crore to the exchequer.
According to an internal note of the Department of Telecom (DoT), different sections have sent their documents, as desired by Mr. Patil. However, they (documents) are not authenticated and they do not contain the detailed note.
Mr. Patil also asked the Ministry to send documents regarding constitution and function of Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC), a wing in DoT that manages and allocates spectrum.
He has also sought information about National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP), under which spectrum is allocated to operators, as revised from time to time.
Besides, he questioned whether CVC guidelines are applicable to allocation of spectrum to operators and asked the Ministry to provide documents with regard to this.
Mr. Patil had earlier said that his mandate was limited to look into procedures followed by the DoT and not to investigate in the alleged 2G spectrum scam.
The panel is expected to complete the inquiry in four to five weeks and give its report to Mr. Sibal.
