A day before the scheduled beginning of deposition by former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Nripendra Misra in the 2G case, CBI on Tuesday submitted to the court several documents, including letters exchanged between TRAI and Department of Telecom (DoT) during his tenure.
The agency filed the documents before Special CBI Judge O P Saini saying "CBI is submitting the following relevant documents for keeping the same on judicial records as these could not be filed along with the chargesheet."
The documents include TRAI files, correspondence between Misra and former Telecom Secretary and accused Siddharth Behura on issues of 2G spectrum allocation.
One of the documents included Misra's July 1, 2008, letter to Behura in which the then TRAI Chairman had referred to his earlier communication to DoT saying the department should take recommendations from TRAI before awarding license to a new service provider or amending the terms and conditions of license of existing service providers.
"The authority (TRAI) is of the view that in case the terms and conditions of the existing licenses require any modification, restriction or expansion of scope, the matter can only be finalised after obtaining the recommendations of TRAI.
"Likewise, the new licenses can be processed only after seeking recommendations of the authority," Misra had written to Behura, adding "it is being brought to the notice of the department to avoid any legal complication in future."
Behura, however, had responded back to Misra's July 1, 2008, letter saying "no useful purpose would be served" by having any further discussion with TRAI on these issues.
"The department has been seeking recommendations of TRAI whenever a new category of license is to be issued and we feel that no useful purpose would be served by engaging in any further discussion with TRAI on the subject," Behura had said.
Misra, who had also served as Telecom Secretary from February 2004 to March 2005, in his earlier communication in November 2006 to the then Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, had reiterated that before awarding a license to a new service provider, DoT shall seek the time-bound recommendations from TRAI.
Misra, in his statement before CBI during the probe, had said he had in his September 2006 letter to Mathur pointed out that availability of spectrum should be considered while deciding on the terms and conditions for the license for a new service provider.
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