SC clears Ruia, Mittal of charges in 2G scam-related case

The Supreme Court today said that Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman and managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd and Ravi Ruia, the promoter of Essar Group, will not face trial in a case of allocation of additional spectrum.

The apex court set aside an order of a special CBI court summoning them as accused in a corruption case related to allocation of additional spectrum during the previous NDA rule in 2002.

"The legal principle has been wrongly applied. We set aside the order of the special court," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri said.

The bench did add a caveat: "We are giving liberty to the special judge that if at any stage any material is found, he has every right to summon them (as accused)," it said.

The apex court had on 4 December last year, reserved the verdict after hearing counsel for corporate houses and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Earlier during the arguments, senior advocate F S Nariman, appearing for Mittal, told the SC that the trial court erred in summoning his client despite the fact that the CMD was not named as accused in the charge-sheet by the CBI.

Nariman told the bench that there was "nothing unusual" in the assertion that Mittal had meetings with the then telecom minister Pramod Mahajan and then telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh.

Earlier, the CBI, which had not charged Mittal and Ruia, nonetheless defended the decision of the Special CBI Judge to summon them as accused.

The apex court was hearing petitions seeking setting aside of the order of a Special CBI Judge by which Ruia and Mittal, whose name did not figure in CBI's charge sheet as accused, were summoned on 19 March 2013.

The trial court had said that there was "enough material" to proceed against them in the case.

Earlier, Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia had said that he was not connected with the day-to-day affairs of the impugned company Sterling Cellular Ltd and he was wrongly summoned in the case.

Besides Mittal and Ruia, the special court had also summoned Asim Ghosh, the then managing director of Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd. Ghosh was also not named as accused in the charge-sheet.

The trial court had said that Mittal, Ghosh and Ruia used to chair board meetings and "were/are prima facie in control of affairs of the respective companies" and "they are/were 'alter-ego' of their respective companies".

CBI had filed a charge-sheet against former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms, Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd).

The lower court, while taking cognisance of the charge sheet, had issued summons to Mittal, Ruia and Asim Ghosh, saying they were "prima facie" in "control of affairs" of their companies named in the charge sheet by CBI in the case.

CBI had booked Shyamal Ghosh and the three telecom firms for the offences of criminal conspiracy (120-B) under IPC and under Prevention of Corruption Act. The probe agency said the three accused telecom companies were allocated additional spectrum resulting in an alleged loss of Rs 846 crore to the exchequer.

Regarding Ghosh, CBI had said that in the alleged conspiracy with the then Telecom Minister Mahajan and the accused telecom firms, he had allegedly abused his official position to show undue favour to the firms causing a loss of Rs846.44 crore to the exchequer.

The case relates to the allocation of undue additional spectrum by the government to the two companies in 2002.