New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the trial of 2G spectrum allocation scam cases before a special court during the pendency of a bunch of petitions before it seeking quashing of charges against the accused.
"What we have not done earlier we won't do now," a bench comprising justices H L Dattu and S A Bobde said as senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for former telecom minister A Raja, made a plea to halt the ongoing trial.
The bench, which was also seized with the petitions of other accused persons and companies like Reliance Telecom Ltd and Essar Teleholdings Ltd said it will hear all the matters on October 29.
It also issued notices and sought response in two weeks from the CBI and its Director Ranjit Sinha on Raja's plea seeking copies of documents filed in sealed cover relating to the agency's top boss' alleged role in scuttling the probe in the 2G cases.
The documents also included the entry register, allegedly containing names of some of the accused in the 2G case, submitted before the apex court.
Senior advocate Harish Salve apprised the bench about the charges against Reliance Telecom and Essar Teleholdings Ltd.
He said Reliance Telecom has challenged the framing of charges against it by raising the clause 8 of Unified Access Service Licences that an applicant should not have more than 10 per cent stake in the company at the stage of grant of licence and not at the stage of applying for it.
He said the case against Essar was piquant as CBI probe in the 2G scam found that no case of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act was made out and they were only booked for the offence of cheating under the IPC.
However, the objection of Essar and its executives that they were not liable to be tried by the special court was rejected.
According to Salve, the apex court had said that the special court would try the case against Essar Teleholdings and its promoter as it had arisen from the same FIR in which other accused are tried.
However, the special court has tried Essar and its promoters separately. The distinction between Essar's case and others have been overlooked, Salve said, adding that in such a situation the matter should have gone to the magisterial court and not remained with the 2G court set up to hear cases involving the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, said all issues being raised had been addressed by the court in its earlier judgment.
The court adjourned the hearing as newly-appointed Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover said he was yet to go through the papers that were delivered at his office only on Tuesday.
The apex court had appointed Grover as SPP on September 2 after U U Lalit, who was lead prosecutor in the matter, was elevated as the judge of the apex court.
The court on October 29 will also hear the plea of DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Reliance Telecom's executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara, Swan Telecom's Shahid Balwa, Essar Group Promotors Ravi Ruia, Anshuman Ruia.
