A prosecution witness in the 2G spectrum allocation case on Thursday told a Delhi court that as per the Unified Access Service Licences guidelines, the real estate firms were not barred from applying for the licences.
Company Secretary V Mohan of real estate firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd, which had applied for the UAS licences in 22 circles in August 2007, told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that when the company had applied for the 2G licences, they had gone through the UASL guidelines.
“When the company made application for UAS licence, I had gone through UASL guidelines. When I went through guidelines and the company decided to file application for UAS licences, it was quite clear to me that there was no restriction on a real estate company, applying for a UAS licence,” Mohan said.
Mohan deposed that in August 2007, the firm tried to venture in the telecom business and made applications to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for licences.
Mohan said their application was rejected by the DoT and Parsvnath Developers Ltd did not get any licence.
During his cross-examination, he said their firm was complying with net worth criteria and paid up equity capital criteria when it applied for the UASL on August 24, 2007.
He said the firm knew about August 2007 recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and in view of this, they knew that the entry fee for grant of pan-India UAS licence was Rs 1,658 crores.
“The company was in the know of TRAI recommendations of August 2007. The company knew that the entry fee for grant of a pan-India UAS licence was Rs 1,658 crore, in view of TRAI recommendations. When the company made the application on August 24, 2007, it never knew that DoT was going to announce a cut-off date,” Mohan said.
Mohan, whose deposition concluded today, said the main ground communicated to Parsvnath Developers Ltd by the DoT for rejecting its application for the UASL was that the telecom business was not in the object clause of the firm at the time of making the application.
He said the rejection of the application by the DoT was challenged by the firm before the Delhi High Court. Besides Mohan, the court also recorded the testimony of prosecution witness Raj Kumar Kapoor, a retired Director of Bycell Communications (P) Ltd, which had also applied for UAS licences in 2007.
Kapoor, whose recording of testimony concluded today, said he was called by the DoT officials for licences on January 10, 2008 but at Sanchar Bhawan, he was given a letter to the effect that their application for UASL was not considered.