2G: Essar, Loop oppose jurisdiction of Special CBI court

Essar Group and Loop Telecom today commenced their arguments in the Supreme Court opposing the jurisdiction of a special court taking cognisance of the chargesheet against them in the case arising out of the agency's probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam. The companies contended since no charge has been made against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the case against them was triable by the Magistrate's court.

"Since we have been chargesheeted only for cheating and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, these offences are triable by a magistrate. That is the scheme of the law," advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Essar, submitted before a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya. He said even in the chargesheet agaisnt them, CBI has said the offence was triable before a magistrate's court but it was filing the chargesheet before the special court as it was set up on the order of the apex court which was dealiing with the 2G spectrum scam. Rohatgi said the Februaary 10, 2011, order for setting up the special court exclusively for the 2G case was delivered on the assumption that it was the case of corruption and the chargesheet would be filed under the PCA.

However, the bench questioned him how he assumed that the special court was being set up to try the case only for the offences under the PCA when the chargesheet was not filed. "How do you come to assume on that date (when the order for setting up special court was passed) that the special court would try the case under PCA as no chargesheet was filed"? the bench told Rohatgi. He said since the FIR relating to the scam was registered against the unnamed officials of Department of Telecom there was an understanding that only offences under PCA would be dealt by the special court.