The Supreme Court today clarified that the government need not follow a competitive bidding process for allocating all national resources. The auction order is only restricted to the telecom spectrum.   

The profit maximisation cannot be only basis for allocating natural resources, said the SC. The policy of auction has not got a constitutional mandate.

The apex court says it cannot prescribe or proscribe method of allocation of natural resources but can undertake judicial scrutiny on case to case basis.

Earlier this year, in the context of the expansive 2G telecom scam, the top court had observed that all natural resources must be auctioned by the government.In February this year, the court cancelled 122 telecom licenses issued by former minister A Raja in 2008 on the basis of a first-come-first-serve policy which he allegedly manipulated.  In its landmark judgement, the court said that a get-in-line policy was fundamentally flawed and that all natural resources must be auctioned by the government.