2G: SC quashes Government\’s review plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by the Central government seeking review of its order  that sanction for prosecution of public servants can be sought even prior to filing of complaints.

 

The court in its January 31 order had pulled up the concerned PMO officials, stating that they should have apprised the prime minister about the pending application of Janata party chief Subramanian Swamy seeking prosecution of A Raja.

 

In its order, the apex court had fixed a time frame of four months for deciding the issue of sanction for prosecution of corrupt public servants. “If the sanction is not given within four months then it is deemed to have been granted,” the bench had held.

 

While rejecting the Centre the bench said,  “We have carefully perused the record of the case and are satisfied that the judgment of which review has been sought does not suffer from any error apparent. In the garb of seeking review, the petitioner wants re-hearing of the case and we do not find any valid ground much less justification to entertain its prayer. In the garb of review, the petitioner cannot seek re-hearing of the matter and re-consideration of the issues decided by the court.

 

The apex court also rejected the petitions filed by former telecom minister A Raja and seven telecom companies- Tata Teleservices,Videocon Telecommunications, S Tel, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Unitech Wireless (TN) Pvt Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd and Idea cellular- seeking reconsideration of its verdict cancelling 122 2G licences. 

 

The court on February 2, 2012 had cancelled 122 licences allotted by A Raja on a first-come-first-served policy. The bench had stated that the policy was unconstitutional and fundamentally flawed.

 

Meanwhile, government got little respite when the court agreed to take up its another review petition on April 13 against its February 2 order cancelling the 122 licences.