SC to pronounce verdict against Chidambaram today

A special CBI court on today will decide on the alleged role of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G scam on a petitioner’s plea seeking to make him an accused in the case.

The court has deferred pronouncement of its order till today noon.

An in camera proceeding is going on inside the court where only the petitioner, his wife and his private secretary and one more council are allowed.

The petitioner alleged that Chidambaram was equally culpable like former Telecom Minister A Raja as he also had a role in deciding the spectrum pricing and allowing telecom companies to off-load shares to foreign firms.

With the Supreme Court leaving the issue to be decided by the trial court, the ball is now in the court of Special CBI Judge OP Saini.

The court, on February 1, also halted for two days the ongoing day-to-day trial in the case for writing the much-awaited order.

A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly, which asked the lower court not to get influenced by its decision, had also refused to direct CBI to "investigate Chidambaram".

The apex court, which came down heavily on former telecom minister A Raja and cancelled 122 2G licenses, however, did not find any fault on the part of the Prime Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The petitioner, who concluded arguments in the trial court in support of his plea, had said the evidence brought on record, prima facie established that Chidambaram was also culpable like Raja in the case.

Supreme Court cancelled all 2G licences today issued by Raja

In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Today cancelled all 122 2G telecom licences granted during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja in 2008.

An apex court bench comprising of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly held that 122 licences for 2G spectrum were granted in ‘arbitrary and unconstitutional manner’.

However, affected companies have been given four months to enter into talks with government based on current market rates.

The court directed TRAI to make fresh recommendation on grant of 2G licences, while making it clear that the allocation of spectrum will be done through auction.

Companies which stand to lose their licences include Videocon, Swan, Idea, Tata and Loop.

The bench had earlier issued notices to 11 private telecom companies, which were granted licences despite allegedly being ineligible to secure them or had failed to launch services within stipulated time-frame.

The private telecom companies which were issued notices included Etisalat, Uninor, Loop Telecom, Videocon, S-Tel, Allianz Infra, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Dishnet Wireless, Vodafone-Essar along with TRAI.

SC decision on plea for probe against Chidambaram today

The Supreme Court will Today pronounce its judgements on the petitions seeking a direction for a probe into the alleged role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum scam and for cancellation of 122 radiowave licences granted during the tenure of A Raja as Telecom Minister.

The SC will also deliver its judgment on another plea for setting up a a special investigation team (SIT) in view of the “slipshod” probe conducted by the CBI in the 2G case.

The judgements will be pronounced by a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly which had reserved its verdict on the plea for probe against Chidambaram and for cancellation of licences of spectrum on October 10 and March 17 respectively last year.

The unanimous verdicts on both the petitions would be pronounced by Justice Singhvi.

Since Justice Ganguly is retiring Thursday, he will be sitting in a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia.

The petitions on both the issues were filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and a petitioner.

The role of Chidambaram in the 2G scam was raised in the Supreme Court by the petitioners who had pointed out that there was evidence on record showing that the decision regarding pricing of spectrum was taken jointly by him and Raja.

A Finance Ministry note to the PMO signed by Pranab Mukherjee was also taken on record by the apex court in which it was stated that the scam could have been averted had Chidambram suggested the policy of auction instead of first-come-first-served policy on allocation of spectrum.

The Centre and CBI had vehemently opposed any probe against Chidambram who was the Finance Minister at the time of allotment of spectrum in 2008.

They had maintained that Chidambaram was not in direct communication with the then Telecom Minister A Raja in determining the price of the radio waves.

However, the petitioners had refuted the claims of CBI and the Centre that Chidambaram was not in the picture till January, 10, 2008, when the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) headed by Raja issued 122 Letters of Intent (LoIs) to telecom companies without following the policy of auction.

The petitioners including CPIL's counsel Prashant Bhushan had contended Chidambaram was "consistently" informed of what was going on and "till November 30, 2007, Chidambaram was apprised of what Raja was upto".

They further said the Finance Ministry officials were for allocation of spectrum through auction but they were overruled by Chidambaram.

2G case trial to resume today

After a week's break, the trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, involving former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and corporate honchos as accused, will resume on today in a Delhi court.

The day-to-day trial in the special court had to be adjourned for a week due to winter break and would continue from tomorrow with Raja questioning his former aide Aseervatham Achary, a key witness in the case.

Achary, who is testifying as seventh prosecution witness, has so far stood by his earlier statements made to the CBI indicting Raja and others.

During his cross-examination, Achary, a former Additional Private Secretary of Raja, had created a flutter in the court on December 22 by saying that he was facing threat to his life.

He had told Special Judge O P Saini that a man present in the courtroom was threatening him. The person, identified as Jai Prakash who was working as a peon with Reliance Power in Noida, was detained by the police but released later on after a day-long interrogation.

Raja, however, had told the court that it was a "drama" by Achary and it was "planned" in "collusion" with the CBI to "adversely impact" co-accused R K Chandolia's bail plea, which is slated for hearing in the Supreme Court this month.