New Delhi:
In a setback for the government, the Supreme Court has dismissed the Centre's review petition over strictures against officials of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) that was part of its judgement in connection with the 2G case earlier this year. The top court had, in its order, said that the concerned officials should have apprised the Prime Minister on the pendency of an application filed by Janarta Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking sanction for prosecuting A Raja.
Mr Raja has been in jail for over a year now for allegedly masterminding the 2G swindle in 2008. He had allegedly granted sweetheart deals to companies who conspired with him - not only did he give them licenses at throwaway prices, but the spectrum they needed was free.
Dismissing the Centre's plea for a review of its observations against PMO officials, a bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice KS Radhakrishnan said, "We have carefully perused the averments contained in the review petition and the grounds on which the petitioner has sought review of the judgment and are convinced that the judgment of which review has been sought does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its re consideration. In the garb of review, the petitioner cannot seek re-hearing of the matter and re-consideration of the issues decided by the Court."
The top court simultaneously also rejected a petition filed by various telecom companies and former Telecom Minister A Raja seeking reconsideration of the 2G judgements.
On February 2, the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licenses granted in 2008 by Mr Raja, who was Telecom Minister then, for mobile network licences and accompanying second generation or 2G spectrum. The licences revoked by the court had been allocated on a first-come-first-served basis by Mr Raja. The judges had said this policy was "fundamentally flawed" partly because it presented an advantage to anyone with access to the "corridors of power."
Mr Raja, in his review petition, had contended that he has not been given an opportunity by the court and that is a violation of basic principles of natural justice. He had also said that he was being condemned without being heard. But the top court set aside his plea saying, "it has been made clear that the observations contained in the judgment shall not prejudice any person including the applicant, who is facing prosecution in the cases registered by the C.B.I. or who may face prosecution on the basis of charge-sheet(s) which may be filed by the C.B.I. in future and the Special Judge, CBI shall decide the matter uninfluenced by this judgment."
The court also found no merit in the government's review petition over its January 31 order which fixed an outer time limit of four months for deciding the issue of sanction for prosecution of corrupt public servants, including one month for the Attorney-General to give his opinion to the government in certain cases.
The 2G scam, considered to be the country's biggest ever, has seen several bigwigs being arrested - several of them being executives of telecom companies who were were arrested last year and spent several months in jail before being granted bail.