The Supreme Court today issued notices to telecom minister A Raja, the telecomm ministry and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea seeking court monitoring of a CBI investigation into the 2008 allocation of 2G spectrum licences.

The two-judge bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly also sent notices to the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, and some others, have moved the SC challenging a Delhi High Court decision of 25 May to dismiss its plea to monitor the CBI probe into the alleged role of the communications minister in the 2008 sale of 2G spectrum licences by the DoT.

The court has sought replies to the notices within 10 days.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Prashant Bhushan, said the CBI refused to go ahead with the probe into the allegations despite documentary proof of a nexus between Raja and others.

DoT's arbitrary sale of 2G spectrum at a throwaway price of Rs1,658 crore per pan-India licence, on a first-come-first-served basis, had caused losses to the tune of Rs60,000 crore to the exchequer, the petitioners alleged.

The Supreme Court also sought explanation from the CBI over its filing of a case against some officials without naming them.

The case should be viewed in the background of the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party slamming the government over the appointment of former telecom secretary PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). The BJP sees it as a deliberate move by the government to cover up the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam.

Thomas's appointment as the new CVC was done to derail the entire investigation into the 2G spectrum scam - a "maha-Bofors" - BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar had alleged.

The DoT, then headed by Thomas, had, in its note prepared on 12 August 2010, opposed the comptroller and auditor general and the CVC looking into the 2G spectrum allocation and had argued before the law ministry that the spectrum allocation was a matter of policy.

"Now, the same person, who earlier objected to the CVC probing the scam, is heading the organisation (CVC) and no one is expecting a fair inquiry into the entire matter," Javadekar had said.

Javedekar had smelt an inter-ministerial collusion in the cover-up game as both the DoT and the law ministry favoured the note prepared against the role of the CVC and the CAG.

"The Congress-led UPA government has undermined institutions like the CAG and CVC on account of the compulsions of coalition politics, the UPA government is under pressure to derail the investigation," alleged Javadekar.

Javedekar also alleged that by insisting that he was working under the guidance of the prime minister, Raja was also trying to involve Manmohan Singh in the scam.