SC sets up special bench to deal with 2G cases

New Delhi: A special two-judge bench was on Friday constituted by Chief Justice S H Kapadia for hearing all cases concerning the 2G spectrum allocation scam. In view of a large number of petitions and applications being filed in the apex court by the Centre, telecom companies and others after it passed the order cancelling 122 telecom licences, Justice Kapadia constituted the bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Patnaik.

"There is a direction that all 2G matters be taken up by by a special bench comprising me and Justice A K Patnaik," Justice Singhvi said while hearing an appeal filed by Janata Party president Subramanium Swamy challenging the trial court's order giving clean chit to Home Minister P Chidambaram in the scam.

He directed the Supreme Court registry to take instruction from the CJI so that Swamy's case could be heard by the special bench.

A special two-judge bench was on Friday constituted by Chief Justice S H Kapadia for hearing all 2G cases.

The bench was constituted as Justice A K Ganguly, who had passed the orders in the scam along with Justice Singhvi, has retired.

The bench had passed a slew of judgements in the scam including the order cancelling the 122 2G spectrum licences granted by former Telecom Minister A Raja and held that first-come-first served (FCFS) policy could not be used for allocation of natural resources.

It had also pulled up the PMO for sitting on the complaint filed against Raja and set a time limit of four months for the government to take a decision on granting sanction to prosecute a corrupt public servant.

In the aftermath of the apex court verdicts, several petitions have been filed seeking review, clarification and recall of its order by the Centre, telecom companies, NGOs and Raja.

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