Surplus spectrum case: HC judge recuses from hearing plea

A Delhi High Court judge today recused from hearing pleas of two telecom firms, listed in a charge sheet in the 2002 additional spectrum allocation case, which have challenged the special 2G court's jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
Justice Suresh Kait recused from hearing the matter and said it be listed before some other bench on August 14 subject to the orders of the Chief Justice of the high court.
CBI too raised preliminary objections to the matter being heard by the high court in view of the Supreme Court monitoring the 2G case.
Hutchison Max (P) Ltd and Sterling Cellular Ltd have challenged the special court's July 23 order by which it had not only dismissed their pleas but had also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on each of them.

The firms had challenged before the special court its jurisdiction to deal with the matter on the ground that their case did not relate to 2G spectrum scam.
They had said the special court was constituted to deal with matters pertaining only to 2G scam and additional spectrum case was not covered under it.

CBI had opposed the jurisdiction issue saying that the case was among the various matters being monitored by the Supreme Court in connection with the 2G scam.
The accused had argued that they never got licence in the period 2001 to 2008, which is under probe by CBI on the apex court's direction and were already an existing licencee.

Former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms -- Hutchison Max, Sterling and Bharti Cellular Ltd, were named by CBI in its charge sheet in the case relating to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum that had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 846 crore to exchequer.
The special court was earlier informed that the Supreme Court had quashed the order summoning Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused in the case.
Besides Mittal, Ruia and Ghosh, the special court had also summoned Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh, who was then a Managing Director of Hutchison Max Pvt Ltd, as an accused.