SC judge Dave recuses from hearing Mittal, Ruia's plea

Justice Dave, who was part of the bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, did not assign any reason for opting out of the hearing

Justice A R Dave of the Supreme Court today became the second judge in four days to recuse from the bench hearing the petitions of Bharti Cellular Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia, in a graft case related to allocation of additional 2G telecom spectrum in 2002.

Without assigning any reason, Dave, who was part of the bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir, opted out of hearing the pleas of Mittal and Ruia challenging the summons issued to them in the case.

The CJI said a new bench would be constituted to hear the matter and the proceedings pending before the trial court will remain “postponed” for another week.

During the previous hearing on April 15, Vikramajit Sen, who was one of the members of the three-judge bench headed by the CJI, had also recused from hearing the matter without giving any reason.

In the previous hearing, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said the matter should be referred to another bench, headed by G S Singhvi, which has been monitoring the development into the investigation into the 2G spectrum scam and cases arising out of its probe.

The bench headed by Singhvi had ordered the CBI probe into the allocation of 2G spectrum during the regime of A Raja as telecom minister and additional spectrum issued in 2002 during the NDA regime when the late Pramod Mahajan was telecom minister.

Mittal and Ruia had appeared before the trial court on April 16 in pursuance to the apex court's earlier order and had also furnished personal bonds.

Trial judge O P had Saini had accepted their bonds and had posted the matter for further proceedings on April 22.

The apex court today said the same order would continue in the trial court.

The apex court on April 8 had postponed the hearing till April 16 against Mittal and the same relief was granted to Ruia on April 10.

The CBI had told the apex court that investigation into the case has “found evidence against the CMD” (Mittal).

While summoning Mittal, Asim Ghosh, then MD of Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd and Ruia, then a Director in Sterling Cellular Ltd, the special CBI court had said they were “prima facie” in “control of affairs” of their companies, named in the charge sheet by CBI in the case. The trial court had also summoned Ruia and Ghosh, whose names were not mentioned in the charge sheet.