2G case: SC agrees to hear Mittal's plea against summons

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a plea of Sunil Bharti Mittal, CMD of Bharti Cellular Limited, against his summoning as an accused in a corruption case related to allocation of additional 2G spectrum in 2002.

Mittal contended that criminal liability cannot be fastened on an individual for alleged acts of a firm. A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir posted for hearing on April 8 the petition of Mittal who along with two others has been summoned by the special court despite the fact that CBI did not name him as an accused in its charge sheet.
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"The special judge failed to consider the settled law in the context of vicarious criminal liability of Managing Directors/Directors and other officers of corporations that in the absence of specific statutory provisions making individual actors liable, there shall be no vicarious criminal liability
imposed on any individual for acts of any corporation," the petition filed by Mittal said.
"Commission of an offence by raising a legal fiction or by creating a vicarious liability in terms of provisions of a statute must be expressly stated. The Managing Director or Directors of a company cannot be said to have committed an offence merely because they are holders of offices," it said and sought a "leave to appeal" against the order of the lower court.
It said that the lower court did not consider the fact that for commission of an offence "there is the need of actus reus (act) and mens rea (motive)" and moreover, there is no finding in the impugned order that Mittal had any intention of committing the offence.
While summoning Mittal, Asim Ghosh, MD of Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd and Ravi Ruia, a Director in Sterling Cellular Ltd, the special court had said that they were "prima facie" in "control of affairs" of their companies, named in the charge sheet by CBI in the case.