The Supreme Court today agreed to hear the Centre's plea for additional four-month extension of its August 31 deadline for the government to complete the process of fresh auctioning of 2G spectrum licences, cancelled by the court in February.

A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi slated August 24 for hearing the plea.In an application filed by the Ministry of Telecom, the government said it needed time till November 12 to start the auction and another 40 days to complete the procedure and allocate licenses and spectrum.

The decision to approach the apex court for extension of the time was taken at a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom on August 7.

The apex court on February 2 had cancelled 122 licences for the 2G spectrum and had directed their fresh auctioning by June 2.