2G: Pages missing from finance ministry file placed before SC

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tursday placed before the Supreme Court the finance ministry file on the issue of fixing the price of 2G spectrum in 2008, but it could not be taken on record and returned to the agency as some pages of the file were missing.

"Check the pages. Where are the running pages," a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said when it found that some pages were missing from the file.

After drawing the attention of the CBI counsel and senior advocate K K Venugopal, the bench returned the file asking the agency to take corrective measures. However, during the brief perusal of the file, the bench said it was inherent in the note of the then Finance Seceretary D Subba Rao that a suggestion was taken from the army on the issue of spectrum.

The court also took note that there was a document to suggest that telecom regulator TRAI has written to the Department of Telecommunication about creating a level-playing field for the new entrant in the sector so that the new comers do not face pay more.  

The bench also drew the attention of the CBI counsel that Subba Rao had written a letter in November 2007 about the pricing for efffective utilisation of spectrum.

The court had on Wednesday sought the files to examine whether Janata Party Chief Subramanian Swamys plea for a CBI probe into Home Minister P Chidambaram's role in 2G spectrum scam for fixing the price of radio waves on the rate of 2001 in 2008.

The court was hearing Swamy's plea that CBI was not investigating Chidambaram's alleged culpability in jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja's decision not to auction spectrum.

On the basis of the March 25, 2011, finance ministry's note to the prime minister's office that suggested that Chidambaram could have insisted on auction, Swamy argued for a CBI probe into a possible meeting of minds with Raja in fixing a low price for the spectrum bundled with licence.