Essar Teleholdings limited bosses Ravi and Anshuman Ruia will face trial before the 2G court as the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed their demand to be separately tried by a Magistrate court. As they faced charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy under IPC, the company appealed to the apex court to de-link their trial from the remaining 2G cases being specially tried by an Additional Sessions Judge designated to hear cases under Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Bench of Chief Justice Hl Dattu, Justices AK Sikri and Rohington F Nariman while deciding on the petitions filed by the company and its two promoters — Ravi and Anshuman Ruia held that similar prayer raised by the accused was dismissed earlier by the apex court.
It said, “We are of the view that the petitioners are attempting to raise submissions which have already been rejected by this court by its judgment dated July 1, 2013….We find no infirmity in the impugned judgment. As a result, the appeal and the writ petitions are dismissed.” Also, the court noted that if the case against Essar and its promoters was de-linked and sent to Magistrate, it will violate the July 1,2013 decision that required all 2G cases to be tried together.
The Bench also made it clear that though the charge against Essar and its promoters emerged in the second supplementary charge-sheet, once an administrative order was passed by the Delhi High Court and Delhi Government assigning 2G cases to a specific bench, “the offences arising out of the second supplementary chargesheet, being offences under the Indian Penal Code relatable to the 2G scam, can be tried separately only by the Special Judge.”
This was the last attempt Essar employed to buy time as the 2G special court is about to finish the trial in the case. For Essar, senior advocate Harish Salve also argued in the alternative to seek a joint trial with the other accused in which event the trial against them should begin all over again. He had questioned why his client was denied of a stage of appeal when the charges against him are to be tried only by a Magistrate court and not Sessions Court.
