Delhi High Court rejects plea on 2G spectrum

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition requesting it to monitor the CBI probe into the alleged role of Union Communications Minister A. Raja in the 2008 sale of 2G spectrum licences.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice M B Lokur dismissed the petition filed by two city-based NGOs, Telecom Watchdog and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation.

“We will not monitor the investigation,” the court said, adding that it would be unfair to not show confidence in the CBI while it was still probing the issue.

In their petition, the NGOs had requested the bench to direct a court-monitored investigation into the 2G spectrum scam for “unearthing the role of Respondent 5 (Raja), senior officers of DoT, and middlemen involved“.

Mr. Raja was expected to take the auction route for allotting the 2G licences to telecom service providers.

“The value of this spectrum has multiplied manifold. The government got a total of only Rs. 9,014 crore as licence fee from these 122 licences, which was much lower than the market price. This has caused an estimated loss of about Rs. 70,000 crore to the exchequer,” the petitioners said.

They further submitted that acting on complaints lodged by the Central Vigilance Commission, the CBI had lodged FIRs against “unknown officers of DoT and unknown private companies“.

The CBI had also raided the premises of DoT and recovered “incriminating evidence” against some influential persons, they added.

“This included a telephone recording by the Directorate of Income Tax between the parties involved and Mr A Raja. The CBI received the CD of this communication in November 2009.

Despite the passage of more than six months, it has not summoned the suspects, nor filed any charge sheet,” it said, adding that a senior CBI official attached to this probe has been transferred.

“It is understood that due to political compulsions and to protect the suspects, the CBI is trying to close the matter without a serious, deep investigation,” they said.

The NGOs further contended that the action of the government “in scuttling the investigation was arbitrary and illegal. The record of the CBI in politically-sensitive cases leaves much to be desired. The rule of law requires a through investigation into this huge scam.”