2G scam: SC to hear Sunil Mittal’s plea against summons on 8 April

The Supreme Court today posted for 8 April the further hearing of a plea by Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director of India's biggest telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd, against a summons issued by a Special CBI Court in connection with a case relating to undue allotment of 2G spectrum.

Mittal had been summoned by the CBI court on 11 April as an accused over alleged corruption in the allocation of mobile phone bandwidth more than a decade ago, along with Asim Ghosh, the former head of Vodafone-Essar, Ravi Ruia, one of the founders of the Essar Group, and former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh.

Mittal thereupon moved the Supreme Court on 1 April seeking quashing of the CBI court order.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit were in 2002 charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation with irregularities in obtaining mobile spectrum when the BJP-led NDA coalition was in power. The chargesheet did not name any individual executive.

Mittal, Ghosh and Ruia were named as accused because "they represent the directing mind and will of each company", Special Judge O P Saini had said in his order.

Singapore-based telecom firm SingTel, which holds an over 30-per cent stake in Bharti Airtel, has said in a statement that it has full faith in the company's corporate governance standards under Mittal.