The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and the Janata Party President, Dr Subramanian Swamy, on the Centre's review petition on certain aspects of the apex court order on cancellation of 2G licences.

The Centre has not challenged the cancellation of 2G licences. But its review petition questions the court's insistence on auction as the only method for distribution of all natural resources such as spectrum, ore and water.

The court had said that the Government's First-Come-First-Served Policy (FCFS) in this regard is fundamentally flawed.

The apex court said the fact that it has issued notice should not be construed to be a stay on its order to cancel 122 2G licences.

This means that the companies whose licences were cancelled by the February 2 ruling will have to surrender them as directed therein within four months from then on.

The matter is slated to be heard again on May 1, by when Dr Swamy and CPIL (on whose pleas the landmark 2G order was delivered by the apex court) will have to file their replies.

The private telecom operators – impacted by the 2G order and whose review petition has already been dismissed – wanted the court to hear them while deciding the Centre's review petition.

The court declined to issue notices to them but said it may hear them if considered necessary later.

The Department of Telecom had separately sought clarification on the timeline for the auction of 2G spectrum bandwidth to be surrendered by the companies whose licences have been cancelled. The DoT wanted time till January 28, 2013 to finish the auction process and till March 8, 2013 to allocate the bandwidth.

The court made it clear that Friday's observations/directions were not regarding that ‘clarificatory' petition.

arun.s@thehindu.co.in

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