NEW DELHI: The CBI has told the Supreme Court that it should not consider a petition by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, asking it to direct the agency to investigate the alleged role of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum scam case. Chidambaram was finance minister in 2008 when the alleged scam took place.
"The 2G spectrum scam is now outside the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," CBI's counsel KK Venugopal told a bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly on Tuesday.
Venugopal said the trial in the case has commenced after filing of chargesheets and only the trial court has jurisdiction to decide whether a further probe against any person could be carried out.
The court passed no order, but appeared to counter the CBI's assertion that it had no right to order a CBI investigation because a chargesheet has been filed.
"The charges have not been framed. Trial starts from the date of the framing of the charges," the judges said. "The prayer of the applicant is not for a direction to investigate the case in a particular way. It is to direct the CBI to further investigate the case," Justice Ganguly said.
The proceedings before the Supreme Court witnessed a vigorous verbal tussle between Swamy and Venugopal. Swamy told the bench that there were four meetings between the then telecom minister A Raja and then finance minister Chidambaram, which, according to him, was proof that decisions on the allocation of 2G spectrum was taken together.
These meetings took place on January 30, 2008, May 29, 2008, June 12, 2008, and finally on July 4, 2008.
The minutes of the meetings on January 30, 2008, were missing. But details are now available through the trial court records, said Swamy, adding it was provided by the accused former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.
When Swamy wanted to submit the documents to the apex court, Venugopal objected on procedural grounds and also because, according to him, they were irrelevant as the decision on the allocation of 2G licences was taken on January 8, 2008, by Raja. It had nothing to do with the case, CBI's lawyer argued.
Swamy also referred to the CAG report to buttress his case, claiming that the report had said that there was no difference of opinion between the telecom and the finance ministries. He also referred to the PAC report, saying it clearly "nailed" Chidambaram's role though it was not accepted by the parliament. Venugopal objected to Swamy's plea on the ground that the PAC report cannot be discussed before the court.
"In regard to all matters relating to 2G spectrum scam, the conspiracy and other offences, the investigation is complete and chargesheets have been filed. If the magistrate finds some issue to be probed it could ask the agency to do so under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code. In the alternative, if it finds any evidence against a person, it could summon him as an accused under section 319," said Venugopal, summing up his case.
Venugopal said he will cite several case laws on it to prove his point while Swamy said he would oppose it. The bench will resume its hearing on Wednesday.
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