New Delhi, Nov. 17 -- The government argued in the Supreme Court that telecom spectrum belongs to the citizens and cannot be traded in insolvency cases. But there were differences between the two ministries involved on whether the critical national resource can be traded in such instances.

The Supreme Court last week reserved its verdict on the treatment of spectrum in bankruptcy cases. But the department of telecommunications (DoT) and the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) were at odds over how spectrum should be treated in insolvency cases of Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom), according to two people in the know, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal discussions.

The DoT held that the spectrum is a natural r...