The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), which was one of the petitioners on whose PIL, 122 licences for 2G spectrum were canceled, contended "the government in its Reference has failed to point out why it is opposed to auctioning scarce natural resources and through what other methods it wishes to alienate them."
CPIL, in its response to the May 11 notice issued by a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, said the Presidential Reference is "not maintainable" and the "government has indulged in forum-shopping".
"The Reference is also not maintainable as it clearly and squarely seeks a review/appeal against the judgment of this court and also frames certain questions of law that have been clearly answered by this Court (in earlier judgement).
"Government has indulged in forum-shopping by filing a Presidential Reference raising the same issues as were raised in its review petition in the 2G case and then withdrawing the review petition after all review petitions by telecom companies are dismissed and only a limited notice was issued on government's own review petition," CPIL said in its response filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan.
"Despite such a clear enunciation of law, government has still opted to file this Reference so that it can continue with its opaque, inefficient and corrupt system of allocation of precious natural resources to big industrialists," it said. (More)
