A public authority possesses power only to use it for public good and this imposes a solemn duty on the State to act impartially and to adopt a procedure of allotment of licence which is 'fair play in action,' the Supreme Court has said.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja had "misled" then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding policy of first-come-first-served which was to be followed for allocation of 2G spectrum, Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a special court.
The Centre on Tuesday decided to withdraw from the Supreme Court its plea for review of the 2G judgment, which had held that natural resources should be allotted to private companies only through "auction" and not on the basis of first-come-first-served policy.
The government auditor CAG had estimated a presumptive loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore (Rs 1.76 trillion) because of sale of spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The DoT had last week sent a detailed reply to all the issues raised by the CAG.
He allegedly advanced the cut-off date to favour accused firms in allocation of 2G licences.