Hearing on cancellation of 122 telecom licenses soon

A two judge bench of the Supreme Court is expected to shortly pronounce its order on the petition seeking cancellation of as many as 122 telecom licenses issued in January 2008 by former telecom minister A Raja.

Legal sources expect the order to be issued in a day or two, before the retirement of justice AK Ganguly who will step down on February 2, 2012.
The petitioner has sought cancellation of as many as 122 licenses of 11 telecom companies, including the likes of Loop Telecom, Sistema, Uninor, Etisalat and Videocon among others.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today issued notices to the government of India and several operators including Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on a petition on the grant of excess spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to these firms.