2G: Ruia appeals to SC against special court’s summons

Ravi Ruia, head of the Essar Group, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the order of the special CBI court in Delhi trying the 2G spectrum case summoning him to appear before it in connection with excess spectrum allocation to certain telecom companies during the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA rule.

This follows a successful plea to the same effect before the apex court by Bharti group chairman Sunil Mittal.

Ruia, along with Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal and five others, was summoned to appear before the special court on 11 April.

Mittal's counsel had argued before the Supreme Court on Monday that the alleged action of a company in securing excess spectrum could not be fastened as a vicarious liability on those at the helm of affairs.

The apex court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to explain why the agency did not name Mittal in the chargesheet but was defending the summons by the trial court. Like Mittal, Ruia's name too did not find mention in the chargesheet.

Taking cue from these developments, Ruia rushed to the court on Tuesday to contend that he was not even "at the helm of affairs" of Sterling Cellular Ltd. The Essar group refused to comment, saying "the matter is sub judice".

Ruia's counsel said the sole basis for the trial court's decision to summon his client was that he had chaired certain meetings of Sterling Cellular Ltd and held the view that decisions of the company could be attributed to him. The petitioner said he held no executive position in the company and that Essar group had only a minority shareholding in Sterling Cellular.

On Monday, the apex court had repeatedly questioned the timing of the trial court's decision to use discretionary powers at this stage to summon Mittal, Ruia and others as accused in the case even before the evidence was examined and taken on record.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir had said that if the magistrate, after scrutiny of the evidence came to the conclusion that prima facie case was made out against the persons not named in the chargesheet, it would have been understandable.

"But we are unable to understand the trial court's decision to issue a summons immediately after taking cognizance of the chargesheet," the bench had said.

But the CBI stoutly defended the trial court's decision saying the judge had appreciated that there was enough material to constitute a prima facie case against the persons summoned as accused despite they being not named in the chargesheet.

Along with Mittal and Ruia, those summoned on 11 April by the special court included former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh, and Asim Ghose, formerly with Hutchison Max Telecom, which is now Vodafone India.

On December 21 last year, the CBI named Ghosh and the three telecom firms as accused in the 57-page charge sheet for criminal conspiracy as also under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for causing a loss of about Rs846 crore to the exchequer.