The DoT was at the receiving end of the Supreme Court which slammed it for what the court termed as arbitrary advancing of the cut-off date for applying for new 2G licences in 2007. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to cancel the Delhi High Court which had also ruled out against the DoT move.

A three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said,

“Why was the date extended from September 25, 2007 to October 1, 2007 and later the date was reversed when there were already large number of applications.”

DoT had approached the Supreme Court following Delhi High Court ruling against its decision to advance the cut-off dates. S Tel had filed a petition in the Delhi HC challenging DoT’s move in 2007.

In 2007, the DoT had in a bitter surprise to some players announced advancing the cut-off date for applying for new 2G licences from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007.

This had left many players stranded with S Tel being one of them.

The applications submitted by players on September 25, 2007 literally witnessed bouncers being placed by some players to prevent competitors from submitting bids before them.

The whole process was handled very unprofessionally by DoT.

There were allegations of the move being forced to benefit some players.

The move is under CBI investigation.