Slamming the Congress for celebrating the 2G verdict, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the judgment was not a proof of UPA’s innocence and should in no way be treated as a “badge of honour.”

“The Congress party leaders are treating this verdict as a badge of honour and a certification that the 2G allocation policy was an honest policy… It was a corrupt policy and this was upheld by the Supreme Court,” Jaitley told mediapersons.

The finance minister said that the UPA government led by Congress had in the year 2007 and 2008, gave out 2G spectrum neither by auction nor by market mechanism but on the basis of price discovery that was made in 2001.

“In 2007 2008 spectrum was being allocated by UPA on basis of 2001 prices… Even within the policy implementation there was huge element of arbitrariness. The cutoff date was advanced and the first come, first serve policy favoured only a selected few,” said Jaitley.

“Even this was changed and converted to first come, first pay policy and the favoured chosen few were informed in advance about the changem” he added.

Jaitley said in February 2012, the Supreme Court upheld this challenge and quashed the policy of first come, first serve as well as first come, first pay.

“Each and every case of allocation was quashed by the SC,” he said.

A Delhi court acquitted all the accused in the alleged multi-thousand crore rupee 2G spectrum scandal, DMK MP Knaimozhi, who was also acquitted in the case, said that finally their innocence had been proved.

Special Judge OP Saini acquitted all the accused, including then Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimohi, in both the cases filed by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The alleged scam on the issuance of licences and allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecom occurred during the Congress-led UPA government’s first tenure in 2008 but was widely reported in 2010 following a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

The 2G spectrum allocation scam had rocked the UPA government and damaged the squeaky clean image of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under whose watch the alleged scam took place.