The apex court on Wednesday dismissed
review petitions of seven
mobile operators against the
cancellation of 122 licences.
The court, however, accepted the government's review petition which is scheduled for hearing on April 13.
The apex court rejected the government's plea to have a re-look into its findings that sanction for prosecution of public servants can be sought even prior to filing of complaints.
A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said Raja's apprehension that his case in the trial court would be prejudiced due to the verdict cancelling the 2G licences is "not well founded".
The companies whose review petitions were dismissed are Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, S Tel Ltd, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd.
The Supreme Court also dismissed former Telecom Minister
A Raja's review petition.
The bench dismissed the plea of Raja seeking a review of the verdict on grounds of violation of "principles of natural justice" and "judicial norms" that he was indicted without being heard.
"The apprehension expressed by the applicant (Raja) that the observations contained in various paragraphs of February 2, 2012 judgment will prejudicially affect his cause is not well-founded.
"Because in the judgement, it has been made clear that the observations contained in the judgment shall not prejudice any person including the applicant, who is facing prosecution in the cases registered by CBI or who may face prosecution on the basis of chargesheets which may be filed by CBI in future and the Special Judge, CBI, shall decide the matter uninfluenced by this judgment.
"It has also been made clear that the judgment shall not prejudice any person in the action which may be taken by other investigating agencies under the Income Tax Act, 1961, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and other similar statutes.
"With the above observation, the review petition is dismissed," the bench said.
While dealing with review petitions of seven telecom companies, the bench passed separate orders on each.
The bench said cancellation of 22 licences of
Unitech Wireless , which was in a joint venture with Norway's
Telenor and operating under the brand name Uninor, "did not suffer from any legal infirmity warranting reconsideration of the issues decided therein."
While disallowing the plea of Sistema Shyam Telservices, a joint venture between Russia's Systema and India's Shyam Telecom, which was granted 21 licences and is operating under the brand name MTS, the bench said "as a sequel to dismissal of the review petitions, the petitioner's prayer for stay (of judgement) is rejected."
Dismissing the plea of Videocon, which had filed two petitions seeking a review of the verdict cancelling its 21 licences, the bench said "in the garb of seeking a review, the petitioner wants re-hearing of the case and we do not find any valid ground, much less justification, to entertain its prayer."
The bench also did not entertain a review of the judgement cancelling 15 licences granted to Swan Telecom, now Etisalat DB, a joint venture between India's DB Group and UAE's Etisalat.
Tata Teleservices Ltd's plea for review of cancellation of its three licences granted in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and North East, was dismissed with the bench saying there was no need for reconsideration of the issue decided by it.
In the case of S Tel, the bench rejected its plea for permission to address oral arguments saying "the judgment of which review has been sought was decided after threadbare consideration of all the points raised during the course of hearing."
It said S Tel's plea for setting aside its directions and stay of the February 2 judgement are "thoroughly misconceived and cannot be entertained."
(With PTI inputs)
Special 
