Censured by the Supreme Court for not putting on auction the entire 2G spectrum cancelled by its February verdict and adopting a casual approach on the matter, the Centre yesterday defended its decision, saying it had acted on the TRAI recommendations under a bonafide belief that it was obligated to do so as per the judgement.

The affidavit, submitted by the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications before the court stated that auction of 390 MHz out of 473.6 MHz of spectrum in 800 and 1800 MHz band – allotted to 122 licence holders in 2008 by then telecom minister A Raja, was carried out following the recommendations by the TRAI and the government’s decision of 2011.

A Bench led by Justice G S Singhvi had on Monday questioned the Centre over not informing the court about its decisions on keeping certain frequency bands reserved, non-availability of a frequency band.