JUDGMENT

N.P. Singh, J.-The petitioners in different writ petitions have questioned the power of the Central Government to grant licences to different non-Government Companies to establish and maintain Telecommunications System in the country and the validity of the procedure adopted by the Central Government for the said grant.

2. In February 1993, the Finance Minister in his Budget speech announced Government s intention to encourage private-sector involvement and participation in Telecom to supplement efforts of Department of Telecommunications especially in creation of internationally competitive industry. May 13, 1994 National Telecom policy was announced which was placed in the Parliament saying that the aim of the policy was to supplement the effort of the Department of Tele-communications in providing telecommun-ications services. Later, guidelines for induction of private-sector into basic telephone services were announced and a Commitee was set up to draft the tender documents for basic telephone services under the Chairmanship of G.S.S. Murthy. Ministry of Communications published the Tender Documents for Provision of Telephone Service . It specified and prescribed the