Graft case: Indian court cancels 122 phone licenses

Indias top court ordered the government on Thursday to cancel 122 cellphone licenses granted to companies during an irregular sale of spectrum that has been branded one of the largest scandals in Indias history.The verdict will likely throw the countrys massive cellphone market into chaos and is a further embarrassment for the scandal-riddled government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Government auditors have said the 2008 sale of second generation, or 2G, cellphone spectrum at cut-rate prices in a bewildering first-come, first-served process cost the treasury as much as $36 billion in potential revenue.Subramanian Swamy, an opposition politician who filed the court complaint, said the court ruled that the 122 licenses granted in that deal be scrapped and that a fresh auction for licenses be held in the next four months.