New bench to hear pleas of Mittal & Ruia in SC

New judge S S Nijjar to join Altamas Kabir, who will take up the matter on Thursday

After the recusal of two judges, a new bench has been constituted in the Supreme Court to hear the petitions of Bharti Cellular Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia in a case of alleged irregularities related to allocation of additional 2G telecom spectrum in 2002.

S S Nijjar would be the new judge. He would join Altamas Kabir, who would take up the matter on Thursday.

Vikramajit Sen had, on April 15, and A R Dave had, on April 18, recused themselves from hearing the matter. Neother cited any reason.

Mittal and Ruia have challenged the summons issued to them by the trial court.

The CJI had earlier said a new bench would be constituted to hear the matter and in the meantime, the proceedings pending before the trial court would remain "postponed" for another week. During the earlier hearing, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said the matter should be referred to another bench headed by G S Singhvi, which has been monitoring the development into the investigation into the 2G telecom spectrum scam and cases arising out of its probe. The bench headed by Singhvi had ordered a CBI probe into the allocation of 2G spectrum when A Raja was telecom minister, as well as additional spectrum issued in 2002, during the NDA rule. At that time, the late Pramod Mahajan was telecom minister.

Mittal and Ruia had appeared before the trial court on April 16 in pursuance to the apex court's earlier order and also furnished personal bonds which were accepted by Special CBI Judge O P had Saini.