Supreme Court order today on 2G review pleas

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took up for examination a batch of petitions filed by the Centre and cellular operators seeking review/clarification of the judgments in the 2G cases but the outcome of the decision is expected only on Wednesday.

Since a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and K.S. Radhakrishnan took up these petitions in the chamber, the decision was not announced till late in the night on Tuesday.

A Bench of Justices Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly (since retired) had quashed the 2G spectrum licences and had also held that a private complainant could seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court had fixed an outer limit of four months (including one month for obtaining opinion of the Attorney General in certain cases) for taking decision on sanction. Contending that it would not be possible for the government to complete the process of auction of 2G spectrum licences in four months as it would take at least 400 days, the Centre had sought a clarification on devising appropriate procedures.

Swamy's plea

The Centre also sought review of the January 31 judgment in the petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy holding the Prime Minister's office (PMO) responsible for sitting over his private complaint to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking sanction to prosecute the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, in the 2G scam. This included “the observations made by this court regarding certain unnamed officers of the PMO without them being parties to the proceedings.”

Mr. Raja sought review of the judgment on the ground that he was not given opportunity to put forth his points. He said the court had given its findings without making him a party to the proceedings. If only he had been heard, he would have answered every allegation made against him, he asserted.