SC to hear Mittal's plea on April 15

The Supreme Court will decide on the validity of the summons issued to Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, by the trial court dealing with the 2G telecom scam on April 15. The latter court will take up the case only on April 16.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been asked to send to the Supreme Court the chargesheet and other documents related to the inquiry against the company and Mittal. Airtel can file its reply by Saturday. Telecom Watchdog, an organisation which was pursuing the scam, has been allowed to file its appeal against the trial court order denying it locus standi in the proceedings.

These orders were passed by an SC bench presided over by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, on an appeal by Mittal against the special court order summoning him on April 11. Now, Mittal need not appear in the trial court on that day.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, who appeared for Mittal, argued the special court could not have issued summons when Mittal was not even named in the charge sheet. It’s Mittal’s company that has been named as an accused. However, that automatically does not make Mittal also an accused person, Salve argued. He read out several judgments to press his point.

CBI counsel K K Venugopal justified the summons and cited provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and several judgments supporting the court order. According to him, even if the chargesheet does not contain the name of the accused, the magistrate has the discretion to summon those connected with the offence. More, the documents filed along with the chargesheet describe the role of Mittal in unmistakable terms.

The Bench wanted to examine the chargesheet and related investigative details to make sure whether Mittal could be summoned for the trial. The lower court has been trying the case after the Supreme Court judgment in February 2012 cancelled 122 telecom licences.

Apart from Mittal, the court had summoned Essar promoter Ravi Kant Ruia and former managing director of Hutchison, Asim Ghosh. They have not approached the SC till now.