With the Centre deciding to appeal against TDSAT's order rejecting its claim of privilege on certain internal documents in the WLL case, Minister for Communications Arun Shourie on Wednesday said the appeal would soon be drafted in consultation with legal experts.
"In a day or two the affidavit would be framed and shown to me...The appeal would be studied by me, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and legal experts," Shourie told PTI but declined to comment on timeframe for filing the appeal in the Supreme Court.
He said in case the Supreme Court too took the view that documents should be disclosed, government would respect the decision.
Reiterating government stand in the telecom tribunal, Shourie said "as far as TDSAT is concerned, whatever documents they require, we will disclose it to them. All seven documents which the cellular operators had demanded we are ready to give to TDSAT."
He said the question was whether to disclose internal notings of government to business contenders in a commercial dispute.
"Suppose in case of defence contract, any arms dealer asks for disclosure of internal notings and seeks a CBI enquiry...How can administration continue like this," Shourie said.
He said telecom department could not formulate its own freedom of information policy, and it would be driven by government's overall views in the matter.
"Collective will of cabinet is available in freedom of information legislation which exempts files and internal notings," he said.
On the issue of level-playing-field, Shourie said at the time when the cellular operators had opted for migration package and benefited from concessions, they had accepted conditions of competition.
He said at the heart of the dispute was the fact that licences were service-specific and mode-specific.
"Technology is changing so rapidly and the licences are frozen. It is therefore important that we should move towards a universal licence based on spectrum," he said.
Assuring that the government would ensure fairness with respect to level-playing-field conditions, Shourie, however, pointed out that level playing conditions did not mean everyone's demands should be complied with.
