The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stay the trial in the `2G spectrum allocation case’ till petitions seeking quashing of charges were decided by the apex court.
A bench of Justice H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde rejected the argument of senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for former Telecom Minister A. Raja that the trial should be stayed till the court decided the quash petitions. Mr. Jethmalani sought copies of documents submitted by the CBI Dirctor in a sealed cover. Justice Dattu told the counsel ‘we have not done it (stay of trial) earlier and we don’t want to do it now.”
Ms. Kanimozhi, member of Parliament and daughter of former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanithi and other accused had sought to quash charges in the 2G case. They said they were aggrieved by the stay order passed by the Supreme Court on an application filed by the CBI of all proceedings pending before the Delhi High Court (relating to quashing of charges) which had resulted in violation of their fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
They argued that continuance of the trial against them without any material basis would amount to abuse of the process of law and result in miscarriage of justice. They said the trial in the 2G case in the special court was nearing completion and they would be greatly prejudiced if verdict was pronounced during the pendency of these petitions for quashing the charges.
It was submitted that the restraint order passed by the apex court had curtailed their fundamental right to contest the baseless charges by filing quash petitions.
Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Reliance Communications said another issue to be decided was whether the date of application for licence should be taken into consideration or the date of allotment of licence as such a decision would have a bearing on the trial.
Senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Ms. Kanimozhi pleaded for early decision on her quash petition.
The bench, after hearing counsel for the parties and senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, for the CBI and special public prosector for 2G cases, senior counsel Anand Grover posted all the maters for final hearing on October 29.
