India Appoints Ex-Judge for Telecom Probe

India Thursday appointed a retired Supreme Court judge to look into the allotment of telecom licenses and radio bandwidtth by the Department of Telecommunications from 2001 to 2009, as the government steps up investigations into a scandal that led to the resignation of telecom minister Andimuthu Raja last month.

Kapil Sibal, who replaced Mr. Raja, said former judge Shivaraj V. Patil will submit a report on his findings in about four weeks.

"We want to solve this problem here and now, and quickly," Mr. Sibal told reporters.

He added that Mr. Patil will examine whether DoT and government procedures in allocating telecom licenses and bandwidtth since 2001 were consistent, transparent, or if there were any deviations.

Mr. Patil can call for DoT records and summon any officials, he said.

The appointment comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation earlier Thursday said it would investigate the allotment of airwaves to telecommunications companies since 2001, a move suggested to the CBI by the Supreme Court.

The CBI had previously focused its investigations on the DoT's allotment of licenses and bandwidtth in 2008. A government auditor last month condemned the DoT's decision to allocate licenses and bandwidtth in 2008 at prices fixed in 2001, saying it cost the government $38.9 billion in potential revenue.

The allegations led to Mr. Raja's resignation.

Prakash Javadekar, spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP--the leading opposition party--told Dow Jones Newswires that he welcomed the Supreme Court's suggestion that the CBI widened the timeframe of its probe.

The BJP was in power when spectrum bandwidtth was allocated in 2001.

Mr. Javadekar added that his party had "nothing to hide."

Shortly after the federal auditor's report was made public, the sector was thrown into further turmoil as the government said it would issue notices to companies that received telecom licenses in 2008.

Telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar Thursday told reporters that notices will be issued to 14-15 companies by the end of this week, asking why their licenses shouldn't be cancelled after the federal auditor found the companies weren't eligible for them.

Mr. Chandrashekhar didn't name any companies.

Notices are also being sent to companies that failed to launch services on schedule.

The corruption allegations are a black mark on India's telecom revolution. With more than 687 million mobile phone users, India is now the world's fastest-growing and second-largest market for mobile phone services, after China.

The scandal is also the latest in a spate of alleged corruption incidents in India that have led to the resignations of figures including Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi from a parliamentary post and Ashok Chavan from his role as Maharashtra Chief Minister. Both have denied any wrongdoing.