Maintainability, merits of president reference on 2G spectrum to be decided: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear all the issues framed by it on the Presidential Reference on the 2G spectrum verdict and its decision on objections on maintainability and the merits of the case will be pronounced together.

After hearing five days of extensive arguments on the maintanibility of the reference, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said instead of passing its order on the maintainability at this stage, it would hear every aspect, including the merits of the reference before arriving at its opinion.

The bench asked Attorney General G E Vahanvati to commence Government's arguments from tomorrow on the merits of the reference. "We will hear the matter on the entire issue. We will decide the reference on merits and also on the initial objection on its maintainability at the end," said the bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Mishra and Ranjan Gogai.

The reference covers various issues arising out of the apex court's 2G spectrum case verdict including whether auctioning of natural resources across all the sectors is mandatory and whether the verdict in the 2G case can be given retrospective effect for radio waves granted since 1994.

The court had on May 11 issued notices and sought responses also from state governments and FICCI and CII on behalf of the private industries along with those of the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy.