<p>The Supreme Court on Monday asked the special CBI court to defer proceedings till April 16 in a case regarding additional spectrum allocation during the NDA regime. A summon was issued to Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal in the case.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir asked the CBI to file an affidavit with its charge sheet by Thursday, after the probe agency claimed that it found evidence against the chairman-cum-managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd.<br /><br />Before fixing the matter for hearing on April 15, the court also directed Mittal to file his response to the CBI affidavit by Saturday.<br /><br />Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the order passed by special CBI judge O P Saini was complete “misdirection” of the law.<br /><br /> Senior counsel K K Venugopal, representing the CBI, said the court had powers under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to proceed against other persons who were not named as accused in the charge sheet but appeared to be guilty.<br /><br />As Venugopal defended the trial court’s order, claiming to have sufficient material to summon Mittal and others as accused, the court asked: “We don't understand this. You (CBI) say there was enough material against them, but then why did you not name them as accused? We would have understood this if their names would have been included as accused in the charge sheet. But you did not do so.”<br /><br />Case against Mittal<br /><br />Mittal, who was not named in the charge sheet as an accused, was summoned by the 2G court, saying there was enough material to proceed against him. <br /><br /> He was summoned along with Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia and former managing director of Hutchison Max (now Vodafone) Asim Ghosh to appear before the special court on April 11.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The Supreme Court on Monday asked the special CBI court to defer proceedings till April 16 in a case regarding additional spectrum allocation during the NDA regime. A summon was issued to Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal in the case.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir asked the CBI to file an affidavit with its charge sheet by Thursday, after the probe agency claimed that it found evidence against the chairman-cum-managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd.<br /><br />Before fixing the matter for hearing on April 15, the court also directed Mittal to file his response to the CBI affidavit by Saturday.<br /><br />Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the order passed by special CBI judge O P Saini was complete “misdirection” of the law.<br /><br /> Senior counsel K K Venugopal, representing the CBI, said the court had powers under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to proceed against other persons who were not named as accused in the charge sheet but appeared to be guilty.<br /><br />As Venugopal defended the trial court’s order, claiming to have sufficient material to summon Mittal and others as accused, the court asked: “We don't understand this. You (CBI) say there was enough material against them, but then why did you not name them as accused? We would have understood this if their names would have been included as accused in the charge sheet. But you did not do so.”<br /><br />Case against Mittal<br /><br />Mittal, who was not named in the charge sheet as an accused, was summoned by the 2G court, saying there was enough material to proceed against him. <br /><br /> He was summoned along with Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia and former managing director of Hutchison Max (now Vodafone) Asim Ghosh to appear before the special court on April 11.<br /><br /></p>
