The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the government to finalise the results of the telecom spectrum auction which ended on Wednesday and fetched the government a huge revenue of Rs 1.09 lakh crore.
The court's order means that the government can now collect intitial payments from successful bidders of over Rs 28,000 crore which will help it plug its fiscal deficit. The final allocation of spectrum however, will be subject to the court's verdict as the auction criteria and guidelines have been challenged by some telecom companies.
The apex court on February 26 had allowed the government to go ahead with the auction of spectrum of bands 800, 900, 1800 and 2100 for all states starting from March 4. However it had said the result of the auction should not be finalised without the leave of the court.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and P.K. Pant on Thursday said it was willing to modify its earlier order.
"We are inclined to modify our order and give Union of India the liberty to finalise the auction and proceed further. All the successful bidders have to be instructed that the action on finalisation will be subject to the outcome of cases," the bench said.
