New Delhi:
For the second consecutive day, the Supreme Court has shared its discomfort with how A Raja handled the Prime Minister's opinions on the controversial allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008.
The licences - given at throwaway prices to companies that were ineligibles - cost Raja his job as Telecom Minister.
Today, the court said that Raja was disrespectful in his response to the PM's suggestion in November 2007 that the spectrum be auctioned instead of being licensed in the first-come-first-serve manner that Raja wanted. The court suggested that in his note to the PM, Raja's language should have been more "tempered."
Raja wrote that an auction would be "unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory." Raja's lawyer told the court that Raja did not mean to disrespect the PM. The court, unimpressed, responded, " Prima facie, it appears so."
Earlier this month, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said that the lack of a 2G auction cost the government Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Yesterday, the court said that Raja seemed to have acted in haste in dismissing the PM's suggestions. It had also faulted Raja for ignoring the advice of then Law Minister HR Bhardwaj, who had recommended that 2G pricing and policy be scanned by an Empowered Group of Minister (EGoM).
"The Prime Minister had made his reservations clear which was not treated with respect. There are requirements of collective responsibility. Government is not like a private business house. Its action has to be reasonable and in public interest," the court said, stressing "In the context of sequence of events, bypassing the Prime Minister was not at all proper," the court said. (
Read: Supreme Court questions Raja's decision to ignore PM's reservations)