The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas of Essar Teleholdings Ltd and Loop Telecom Ltd, companies facing trial along with their executives in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, claiming that the special CBI court conducting trial in the matter does not have the jurisdiction to deal with their case.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya said that the special court holding day-to-day trial in the case is empowered to hear all cases pertaining to the multi-crore scam. “We find no merit in these writ petitions, they are accordingly dismissed. The special court is expected to proceed with the trial on day-to-day basis to ensure early disposal of the trial,” the bench said.
The top court had reserved its judgment on the pleas over a year ago. On Monday, the bench rejected the pleas of the telecom companies in which they had submitted that they be tried in a magisterial court unlike other accused in the 2G case as they have not been charged under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. Referring to Section 220 (trial for more than one offence) and Section 223 of CrPC (persons charged jointly), the top court said that petitioners are co-accused in the said 2G scam case and they may be charged and can be tried together with the other accused. “Persons accused of different offences committed in the course of the same transaction may be charged jointly,” it said.
The other accused named in the CBI’s second supplementary charge sheet in 2G case are Essar Group promoters Anshuman and Ravi Ruia along with Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan, her husband I.P. Khaitan and Essar Group director (strategy and planning) Vikash Saraf.