2G: Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka and others move Supreme Court bench against HC proceedings

Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa, his brother Asif and DB Realty's Vinod Goenka and Rajiv Agarwal, on Monday moved a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, against the stay imposed by the 2G bench on the Delhi High Court's right to quash charges against them.

The quartet, accused of paying bribes under the guise of corporate loans to Kalaignar TV during former telecom minister A Raja's tenure, also wanted the three-judge bench to direct the two-judge 2G bench to stop monitoring the case as chargesheets had already been filed in the case.

The petition sought intervention of the bench, also comprising Justices SS Nijjar and J Chelameswar, on the 2G bench's November 9, 2012, order. "We will see the file," Justice Kabir observed when senior counsels Ram Jethmalani and Dr Rajeev Dhavan raised the issue in the morning urgent mentioning time.

"The court can't take away the High Court's power under Article 226 of the Constitution," Jethmalani contended. "This case falls squarely under Antulay (judgement)," he said.

In Antulay's case, one bench of the Supreme Court had ordered a departure from the normal criminal trial process, but this was subsequently overturned by another as violative of the fundamental right to equality.

After hearing Jethmalani's submissions, the CJI assured him that he would look at the plea. Usually, concurrent benches do not sit on judgement over the rulings of another court. Any grievance is addressed to the same bench. But in this case, the plea by Balwa has been raised by way a fresh writ petition.

Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan, had on November 9, 2012, stayed all proceedings pending in the HC related to the criminal case stemming out of the 2G case. This was in response to a plea by the CBI, which objected to the Delhi HC interfering despite a specific order passed by the 2G bench directing all other courts to desist from dealing with any related case.

Under Article 226, high courts can discharge the accused from the case or quash the charges against them. The high courts enjoy wider power under Article 32 of the Constitution. At least 20 odd such applications are pending before the high court. Balwa, his brother Asif, Vinod Goenka, Rajiv Agarwal, are facing common charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption in the case.

The petition sought a writ, order or direction from the CJI's bench declaring that the 2G bench's orders-of April 4, 2011, and Nov 9, 2012-were void and unconstitutional as these were violative of Articles 14 and 21.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/660-2g-shahid-balwa-vinod-goenka-and-others-move-supreme-court-bench-against-hc-proceedings.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/660-2g-shahid-balwa-vinod-goenka-and-others-move-supreme-court-bench-against-hc-proceedings.html