How the SC gave relief to FM on Friday
25 Aug 2012 8:06 AM IST
In a huge relief to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the Supreme Court has rejected the petition of Janta Party President Subramanian Swamy which said that Chidambaram was jointly and severely responsible with A Raja for 2G scam.
Rejecting Swamy's plea, the apex court bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SK Radhakrishnan said, 'We are of the considered view that materials on record do not show that P. Chidambaram had abused his position as a minister of finance or conspired or colluded with A. Raja so as to fix low-entry fee by non-visiting spectrum charges fixed in the year 2001. It said that no material was made available even for a prima facie conclusion that Chidambaram had 'deliberately allowed dilution of equity of the two companies, Swan and Unitech.'
The court said that criminal conspiracy cannot be inferred on the mere fact that there were official discussions between the officers of the MoF and that of DoT and between two Ministers, which are all recorded. 'Suspicion, however, strong, cannot take the place of legal proof and the meeting between P. Chidambaram and A. Raja would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a criminal conspiracy so as to indict P. Chidambaram,' said the court.
'Petitioners submit that had the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister intervened, this situation could have been avoided, might be or might not be. A wrong judgment or an inaccurate or incorrect approach or poor management by itself, even after due deliberations between Ministers or even with Prime Minister, by itself cannot be said to be a product of criminal conspiracy,' said the court.
The apex court referrred to the two meetings that Chidambram had with Raja in May and June 2008 for resolving the then outstanding issues relating to the allocation and pricing 2G and 3G spectrums, the judgment said that the 'meeting of two ministers would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a conspiracy.'
The apex court also rejected the contention that Chidambaram had overruled his own finance ministry officials who had favoured auction. The court said, 'The allegation that Chidambaram had overruled his officers' views and had conspired with Raja is without any basis.'
WHAT SC SAID
WHAT SWAMY HAD ALLEGED
Rejecting Swamy's plea, the apex court bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SK Radhakrishnan said, 'We are of the considered view that materials on record do not show that P. Chidambaram had abused his position as a minister of finance or conspired or colluded with A. Raja so as to fix low-entry fee by non-visiting spectrum charges fixed in the year 2001. It said that no material was made available even for a prima facie conclusion that Chidambaram had 'deliberately allowed dilution of equity of the two companies, Swan and Unitech.'
The court said that criminal conspiracy cannot be inferred on the mere fact that there were official discussions between the officers of the MoF and that of DoT and between two Ministers, which are all recorded. 'Suspicion, however, strong, cannot take the place of legal proof and the meeting between P. Chidambaram and A. Raja would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a criminal conspiracy so as to indict P. Chidambaram,' said the court.
'Petitioners submit that had the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister intervened, this situation could have been avoided, might be or might not be. A wrong judgment or an inaccurate or incorrect approach or poor management by itself, even after due deliberations between Ministers or even with Prime Minister, by itself cannot be said to be a product of criminal conspiracy,' said the court.
The apex court referrred to the two meetings that Chidambram had with Raja in May and June 2008 for resolving the then outstanding issues relating to the allocation and pricing 2G and 3G spectrums, the judgment said that the 'meeting of two ministers would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a conspiracy.'
The apex court also rejected the contention that Chidambaram had overruled his own finance ministry officials who had favoured auction. The court said, 'The allegation that Chidambaram had overruled his officers' views and had conspired with Raja is without any basis.'
WHAT SC SAID
- Materials do not show Chidambaram abused his official position.
- Meeting of two ministers would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a conspiracy.
- Chidambaram overruling his officers' views and had conspired with Raja is without any basis.
- No material available even for a prima facie conclusion that Chidambaram had deliberately allowed dilution of equity of Swan and Unitech.
WHAT SWAMY HAD ALLEGED
- A Raja could not have alone committed the offences without the active connivance of P Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister.
- Chidambaram was also guilty of breach of trust on the question of national security for not disclosing that Etisalat and Telenor were blacklisted by the Home Ministry.
- Chidambaram had played a vital role in the subversion of the process of issuance of Letter of Intent (LoI), Unified Access Service (UAS) Licences and allocation of spectrum in 2007-08.
- Chidambaram complicit in fixing the price of the spectrum licence at 2001 level and permitting two companies, Swan and Unitech, to dilute their shares even before roll-out of their services.
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