SC cancels 122 spectrum licences, asks trial court to decide on probe against Chidambaram

New Delhi, Feb 2 (ANI): Quashing all 122 spectrum licences granted after January 2008, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked a trial court to decide whether Union Home Minister P Chidambaram needs to be probed for his role in the 2G spectrum scam case.

The apex court said there was no need for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor the 2G scam probe.

The apex court verdict were on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy's petition seeking a CBI probe into Chidambaram's alleged role in the spectrum scam, and on two pleas filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking cancellation of 2G licences and setting up of a SIT to monitor probe the scam.

Swamy had on January 7 submitted documents seeking prosecution of Chidambaram in the case before a Delhi court.

Chidambaram has been at the center of a political storm ever since several reports accused him of having played a role in "deciding" the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.

His name cropped up in a recent report sent by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, in which it was suggested that Chidambaram could have insisted that established procedures should have been followed in the auctioning of the 2G spectrum.

The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering he could have "stuck to the stand" of auctioning of precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in expected revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India's report. (ANI)