HC says it will hear in January CBI's appeal against acquittal
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it will hear in January the CBI's appeal against the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Justice Yogesh Khanna fixed January 13 to 15, 2021 for hearing the appeal. Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, representing the CBI, urged the court to hear the case on a day to day basis, as was being done by an earlier bench, and said the agency will require one week's time to address its arguments.
She urged the court to hear the matter in mid December. However, the judge said it was not possible to give a date for this month and the nearest date that can be given is in January.
Though the CBI had earlier concluded its submissions on the issue of leave to appeal', it will have to argue the matter afresh due to change of judge.
Leave to appeal is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.
Earlier, the case was being heard on a day-to-day basis by Justice Brijesh Sethi, who retired on November 30 and had released the matter from his board on November 23 owing to paucity of time.
Before demitting the office, Justice Sethi had decided various petitions and applications filed by the acquitted individuals and firms in the three cases, arising out of the 2G scam probe, lodged by CBI and ED.
After finishing submissions in the CBI's main case, the high court will take up the ED's money laundering case in which also all the accused were acquitted by the special court.
A special court had on December 21, 2017 acquitted Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and the ED cases related to the scam. Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the special court had acquitted former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura; Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia; Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) –Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, in 2G case filed by the CBI.
