The Supreme Court on Monday junked the plea of telecom companies, facing trial in the additional spectrum allocation case, to separate their case from the batch of 2G spectrum allocation matters being heard by a special court in Delhi.
Deprecating the practice adopted by accused companies to come up with “ingenious” arguments to impede trial, the Bench of Justices TS Thakur and V Gopala Gowda refused to hear the petitions and asked the companies — Hutchinson Max Private ltd (presently Vodafone India ltd) and Sterling Cellular limited (presently Vodafone Mobile Services limited), to face trial and prove their innocence.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Sidharth luthra who appeared for the two companies argued that the special 2G court did not have jurisdiction to hear the additional spectrum case as it emerged from a separate charge sheet and related to a period prior to the spectrum allocation scam.
The Bench responded, “Whether its additional spectrum or original spectrum… the fact is an unfortunate scam has taken place. To argue that I am not part of the scam is an ingenious argument to delay trial. We will not fall prey to this argument.”
luthra argued that the trial court which dismissed their plea had failed to consider the fact that the CAG report was never supplied to them before filing the charge sheet. He further contended that the jurisdiction issue can be raised only at the preliminary stage as once the case is decided by the 2G court, the appeal will lie only before the Supreme Court.
But the bench found these arguments frivolous. “We want to come down heavily on people who try to procrastinate the trial. It seems that the richer the client, greater is the ability to prolong the trial. You [prove your innocence in trial and get acquittal,” observed the bench.
The two companies along with Bharti Cellular limited were charge sheeted in December 2012 for getting excess spectrum in 2003 during the tenure of former Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan. The CBI even named former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh as an accused in the scam.