Hold daily hearings on appeal against 2G verdict on A Raja, others: CBI asks HC

Former minister A Raja, DMK leader Kanimozhi and 33 others accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case were acquitted by a Delhi court in a harshly worded judgment on December 17, 2017

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked the Delhi high court to immediately start holding day-to-day hearings to decide its 2018 appeal against the acquittal of DMK leader A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation case. The application was heard by a single judge bench of justice Yogesh Khanna on July 29, who posted the matter for hearing on September 22 and September 23.

In its plea, the agency said the high court had twice ruled in 2020 in favour of holding daily hearings and directed the parties to address arguments on the leave to appeal but the direction hadn’t been implemented due to one reason or the other. Leave to appeal is formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.

CBI’s application said that if the roster bench is unable to grant a day-to-day hearing with immediate effect for any reason, the appeal should be placed before the chief justice to constitute a special bench to hear the matter.

Raja was accused of rigging the allocation of the 2G mobile spectrum in what was then regarded as one of India’s biggest scams, which led to his resignation from the Union cabinet led by Manmohan Singh in 2010.

Seven years later on December 17, 2017, a Delhi special court acquitted A Raja and 34 others accused by CBI in what came to be known as the 2G spectrum scam, ruling that the agency “miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed charge sheet”

Underlining that the hearings resume at the earliest, CBI said: “That it is noteworthy, that by relying upon the impugned judgements, against which the present appeals are preferred

and leave ts sought, certain persons/entities have initiated/instituted claims and/or likely to be initiating claims against Union of India (UOI), which has placed UOI in a hugely vulnerable position at the cost of the taxpayers money.”

The CBI’s application said the case has great public importance, involves probity in public life and issues of integrity among public officials and has national and international ramifications.