The Supreme Court has postponed the 2G trial court summon issued for Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal's appearance in court to April 16, reports Siddharth Zarabi of CNBC-TV18.
The 2G trial court had summoned Mittal to appear in court on April 11, after Central Bureau of Investigation named him as an accused in a corruption case related to allocation of additional spectrum in 2002.
Mittal had challenged the 2G trial court order on April 2, asking the Supreme Court to quash the order. The apex court will now hear the matter on the April 15, which is one day before his scheduled appearance at the 2G trial court. Also read: SC allows Bharti, Vodafone, Idea 3G pacts until April 11
Along with Mittal, the trail court had also summoned Shyamal Ghosh, Former DoT Secy, Ravi Ruia Vice-Chairman, Essar Group, Ex-Chairman Hutch Essar and Asim ghosh former MD, Hutchison Max Telecom.
In today’s trial, Harish Salve, appearing for Mittal argued that trial courts order summoning these three people was not founded in law because the chargesheet had not named any of these three as individual accused and only the companies had been named. The three accused companies are Bharti Cellular, Hutch Max and Sterling Cellular.
This was countered by the CBI council KK Venugopal, who presented various case laws which pointed that executives of involved companies can be held as accused. However, the court observed that if an individual is not accused in the chargesheet, how he can be summoned.
Prashant Bhushan, one of the 2G petitioners tried to interject in the matter, but his locus standi was questioned by the court. He was not allowed to argue the matter, but in the final order he has been allowed to become a party to the matter and file application.
The apex court has also asked CBI to file additional papers by April 10 and Sunil Mittal to file rejoinder by April 13.
This might be a temporary relief for Mittal, as the matter will be again discussed on April 15, Monday.
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