Telecom Minster Kapil Sibal on Wednesday suggested that courts verdicts in the last couple of years have proved to be detrimental to the growth of telecom sector. These decisions not only resulted in tariff hike, increased debt burden on telecom companies but also impacted government’s coffers. 

Referring to the telecom sector as proverbially golden goose, Sibal while speaking at annual general meeting and national conference of industry body CII, said that Supreme Court’s frequent interventions ensured that it no longer lays golden eggs for a little while.

Sibal said that after all the court’s verdicts and the CAG’s theory of notional loss of 1.76 lakh crore following the alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum, the government was forced to re-auction of airwaves and the result is that government could garner only Rs 1,000 crore.

"Between 2010 and 2013 with all the experiments, with all the court verdicts, with the Rs. 1,76,000 crore, we got into our kitty just Rs. 1,000 crore," he said.

The Supreme Court in its February 2, 2012 verdict had cancelled all the 122 spectrum licenses allocated during the tenure of the former telecom minister A Raja directing the government to resale the permits through auction. The auction so far has got tepid response.

He said that the courts don’t have the experience to deal with the matters related to economic policies and their frequent interventions have only created problems.

"There is the other structural issue, the view of courts in India on matter of economic policy making and that is a very serious structural issue” he said.

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