A lawyer representing Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman and managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd, and Ravi Ruia, the promoter of Essar Group, said on Friday that the Supreme Court had granted relief to his clients because the CBI had filed cases against the two companies, and not the two individuals in question in connection with then the controversial procurement of 2G Spectrum.
Vijay Aggarwal, the lawyer of 2G accused, said, "Today, for the first time after bail, some relief has been given by the Supreme Court in 2G case. In this case the chargesheet was filed only against the company and not against the people owning the company. So, Mr. Mittal and Mr. Ruia have been granted relief by the court, they will not have to face the trial."
Mittal and Ruia had earlier been summoned as accused by a special court hearing the case involving the allocation of additional spectrum in 2002. Their names had not figured in the chargesheet submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which was handling the case.
Mittal had maintained through his legal representative that he could not be held "vicariously liable" for a criminal offence of a company unless there was evidence.
Ruia had claimed that he was not connected with the day-to-day affairs of Sterling Cellular Ltd, and added that he had been wrongly summoned.