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The government may have opened a can of worms for itself with its review petition in the 2G case, arguing that the Supreme Court judgment cancelling 122 telecom licenses erred in holding that the policy [under which the licenses were issued] was contrary to the decision of the Council of Ministers on 31.10.2003, without pointing to what part of the said decision it was contrary to.

The 2003 Cabinet decision required the Department of Telecom and Ministry of Finance to discuss and agree on spectrum pricing.

Contrary to the review petition's claim, the Supreme Court judgment specifically discusses that decision, stating: The DoT did not get in touch with the Ministry of Finance to discuss and finalize the spectrum pricing formula.

But the deeper pitfall for the government is that any discussion on this front runs the risk of highlighting the contradictory positions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram - who was the Finance Minister at the time the 2G scam took place and the CBI have taken on the matter.

On November 11, 2010, in an affidavit relating to the CBI's supervision of the 2G scam investigation, the government, citing correspondence between the Finance and DoT secretaries of November 2007, claimed that both Ministries were in agreement.

Three months later, immediately after ex-Telecom Minister A. Raja's arrest, the Prime Minister, on February 16, 2011 at a TV Editors' conference, explained the circumstances in further detail.

This was also discussed with the FinMin because in terms of the Cabinet decision of 2003 the pricing and allocation of spectrum was to be settled between the Ministry of Finance and the Telecom Department, the Prime Minister said. Initially, of course, the Finance Ministry did ask for a high price of spectrum but after many discussions, the two Ministries agreed that as far as 2G is concerned, we have to live with the present system particularly with regard to the amount of spectrum that is billed and embedded into a licence agreement. So this is the background why I did not proceed further in this matter of pricing of spectrum, because if the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Telecom both agreed and they have the obligation of the Cabinet decision of 2003 to decide on the matter I did not feel I was in a position to insist that auctions must be insisted.

On February 24, 2011, the Prime Minister broadly reiterated the same position in the Rajya Sabha:The government policy on pricing of spectrum was taken on basis of the Cabinet decision of 2003, which specifically left the issue to be determined by the MoF and the Ministry of Telecommunications. Elaborating on Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Raja's role, he said: The two ministers had agreed because of legacy considerations and I accepted the recommendation.

Till March 2011, the government's position in the Supreme Court, to the media and in Parliament, was cohesive in its claim that consistent with the Cabinet decision of 2003, Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Raja had agreed to keep the entry fee for pan-India 2G start up spectrum in 2008 at a 2001 price of Rs. 1,658 crore.

On 2 April, 2011, the CBI filed a charge sheet, accusing Mr. Raja of rejecting suggestions to revise the entry fee from several government sources, especially the Finance Ministry. In one stroke, the CBI overturned the position taken in the government's affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Finance Ministry OM, indeed by the Prime Minister, himself.

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News Analysis - 2G review petition pits PM's word against Chidambaram's