2G verdict: DoT finds itself in dock

The special CBI court has blasted the Department of Telecom for badly written notes and mismanaging policy files. Judge OP Saini said the policy decisions of DoT are scattered in different official files and, as such, are difficult to trace and understand.

“Because of this, it becomes very difficult for outside agencies and institutions to understand issues in proper perspective, leaving scope for controversy. Furthermore, files are also opened and closed too quickly in an haphazard manner even for a small issue and there is no systematic way of dealing with issues in one file in a sequential manner at one place. Documents relating to one issue are placed or inserted whimsically in any file without any regard for relevance of the issue,” the court order said.

“It becomes very difficult to know as to how many files were opened for dealing with a particular issue and why. It also becomes very difficult to arrange and align such files in consecutive manner to understand the progress of the case from beginning to end,” the judge added.

“When documents are not traceable easily and readily and policy issues are scattered haphazardly in so many files, it becomes difficult for anyone to understand the issues. Non-understanding of issues in proper perspective led to a suspicion of grave wrongdoing, where there was none, at least as per record of the Court. This factor greatly contributed to the controversy in the instant case,” the court said.

“The lack of clarity in the policies as well as guidelines also added to the confusion. The guidelines have been framed in such technical language that meaning of many terms are not clear even to DoT officers. When the officers of the department themselves do not understand the departmental guidelines and their glossary, how can they blame companies/ others for violation of the same. The worst thing is that despite knowing that the meaning of a particular term was ambiguous and may lead to problems, no steps were taken to rectify the situation. This continued year after year,” the judgment said.

It noted that notes recorded by various officers in the files are in highly illegible handwriting which are difficult to read and understand. “A wrong impression and understanding is created by such badly written notes. Furthermore, the notes are either cryptic, even telegraphic, or extremely lengthy, recorded in highly technical and layered language, which cannot easily be understood by others, but can conveniently be used for finding fault with the superior authorities for agreeing to or disagreeing from it, as the case may be.

“Notes have also been recorded on extreme margins of the note sheet, some of which have become frayed with the passage of time and cannot be read and understood properly,” the order said.

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