The Delhi High Court has served a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asking it to respond to Reliance Telecom?s request to drop the charges against it in relation to the 2G spectrum case.
However, it is believed that Justice Mukta Gupta did not issue notices to the other respondents mentioned by Reliance Telecom, namely the Ministry of Law and Justice; the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The judge asked the investigative agency to file its response within four weeks and gave Reliance Telecom three weeks thereafter to file a rejoinder, if any. The decision to include other respondents will be taken on January 12, 2012, the next date of the hearing.
The Delhi High Court issued the notice when the bail petition of three Reliance Group executives came up for hearing before the Supreme Court.
In its petition, Reliance Telecom has said that the CBI special court was mistaken in dismissing its contention that Swan Telecom, one of the firms that had been issued a telecom licence in 2007-08, was not an associate firm.
The company?s counsel, N.K. Kaul said, “Reliance Telecom did not hold stake in excess of 9.9 per cent in Swan and that, too, was divested prior to the grant of licenses. No incriminating material has been indicated in the charge sheet or by the prosecution.?
“The charges framed against the petitioner have no basis in law. In fact, there is no act or omission attributable to the petitioner that has been indicated in the charges that justify the continuation of criminal proceedings against the petitioner,” Kaul said.
