Additional spectrum case: Court to hear matter on January 28

SC last Friday cleared the decks in the case by setting aside the lower court's order summoning Mittal and Ruia, observing that principle of 'alter ego' has wrongly been applied

The special 2G court today fixed January 28 for hearing the additional spectrum allocation scam case of 2002 after it was informed that the Supreme Court has quashed the order summoning Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini fixed for hearing the matter which was virtually stalled since April 26, 2013 interim order of the Supreme Court which had said that proceedings against Mittal and Ruia, who had challenged trial court's summoning order, will remain "postponed" until further orders.

After the court was apprised about the apex court's order, the judge said he would go through the verdict and asked the defence counsel to complete the scrutiny of documents filed along with the charge sheet.

The apex court on last Friday had cleared the decks in the case by setting aside the lower court's order summoning Mittal and Ruia, observing that principle of 'alter ego' has wrongly been applied by the trial judge in seeking presence of both the top corporate honchos as accused.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu had also said that the trial court had issued summons on an "erroneous presumption in law", but it can summon Mittal and Ruia if incriminating materials are found against them.

Besides Mittal and Ruia, the special court had also summoned Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh, who was then a managing director of accused firm Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd, as accused.

Mittal, Ruia and Asim Ghosh were not named as accused in the CBI charge sheet.

After the apex court's verdict in the case, Essar Group, in a statement, had said that setting aside of the trial court order summoning its Vice Chairman Ravi Ruia will "assuage concerns of corporate leaders regarding misuse of judicial processes".