New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reserved its opinion on the Reference sent to it by the President on whether it was mandatory to allocate scarce natural resources in all sectors through the auction route.
Arguments were concluded after 17 days of hearing before a five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia, which asked Attorney General GE Vahanvati to make a statement within a week about the government stand on recommendations made in the report of the committee headed by former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla.
The bench sought specific statement on the issue from Attorney General after Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy said that the government has told Parliament on August 9 that recommendations of the Chawla Committee on allocation of natural resources through competative bidding have been accepted.
"We need your statement on instruction by next week," the bench told the Attorney General, who said he will place before it a note on the issue.
"We will go through your note and if we will have any doubt we will re-assemble," said the bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Mishra and Ranjan Gogai.
During the hearing, the bench said it wanted to know whether in principle the Centre has taken any policy decision on the acceptance of the Chawla Committee recommendations as the Reference before it was whether all natural resources could be alienated through auction only.
Mr Vahanvati responded that "Chawla Committee has not recommended auction simplicitor for all natural resources" and the report is still under consideration."
The court was hearing the Presidential Reference arising out of the February 2 judgement on the 2G spectrum allocation in which its two-judge bench had held that all natural resources in all sectors should be allocated through auction.
Arguments were concluded after 17 days of hearing before a five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia, which asked Attorney General GE Vahanvati to make a statement within a week about the government stand on recommendations made in the report of the committee headed by former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla.
The bench sought specific statement on the issue from Attorney General after Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy said that the government has told Parliament on August 9 that recommendations of the Chawla Committee on allocation of natural resources through competative bidding have been accepted.
"We need your statement on instruction by next week," the bench told the Attorney General, who said he will place before it a note on the issue.
"We will go through your note and if we will have any doubt we will re-assemble," said the bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Mishra and Ranjan Gogai.
During the hearing, the bench said it wanted to know whether in principle the Centre has taken any policy decision on the acceptance of the Chawla Committee recommendations as the Reference before it was whether all natural resources could be alienated through auction only.
Mr Vahanvati responded that "Chawla Committee has not recommended auction simplicitor for all natural resources" and the report is still under consideration."
The court was hearing the Presidential Reference arising out of the February 2 judgement on the 2G spectrum allocation in which its two-judge bench had held that all natural resources in all sectors should be allocated through auction.
