Surplus spectrum: Telecom firms withdraw pleas from HC, to

Two telecom firms, chargesheeted in the 2002 additional spectrum allocation case, today withdrew from Delhi High Court their plea challenging the special 2G court's jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
Hutchison Max (P) Ltd and Sterling Cellular Ltd withdrew their plea and decided to move the Supreme Court which is monitoring the 2G scam.
The firms withdrew their plea after CBI submitted any appeal against the special court's decisions has to be moved before the apex court.
Justice Sunil Gaur, thereafter, gave liberty to the two firms to approach the apex court.
Hutchison Max (P) Ltd and Sterling Cellular Ltd had challenged the special court's July 23 order by which it had dismissed their plea and imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on each of the firms.

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.
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 the 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.