NEW DELHI: The trail court to day dismissed a petition by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy seeking to make P. Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G spectrum case with A.Raja.
"Your prayer to summon Chidambaram as an accused is dismissed," Special Judge O P Saini said on Swamy's petition reading out from his much-awaited judgement.
The court said it will commence the hearing on the complaint filed by Swamy in which he had made further allegations against former Telecom Minister A Raja without making Chidambaram an accused from March 17.
Swamy, in his petition, had sought making Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G case alleging that he was as culpable as Raja in determining the price of the spectrum.
Reacting to the judgement, Swamy said that he would approach the Delhi High Court with more evidence.
Swamy said he was "dissatisfied with the order but not disheartened".
The court order has come as a huge relief for U.P.A. Government and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, a Delhi court on Saturday. It has also miffed BJP who is hounding PC since he allowed his ministry to expose terror activities of Sangh workers.
Advocate Tarun Gombhar, who was assisting Swamy, said, "As far as the evidence we had produced to the court, it was sufficient to make a prima facie case against Chidambaram. If this court was not satisfied, we will approach the high court".
Calling it a relief, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee welcomed ruling. He told journalist in Kolkata, "I welcome the judgment, of course, it is a good judgment. It is a good judgment and it is a relief because unnecessarily somebody was persecuted,"
He said even in the judgment of the Supreme Court it was mentioned that the advice of the finance ministry was not heard by then communications minister A. Raja in 2G spetrucm allocation.
"The finance minister was not listened to," Mukherjee said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed all 122 licences for mobile phone services issued in 2008 and left it to the trial court to decide on a possible probe into the role of home minister P Chidambaram
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said that there is no evidence against Chidambaram in the 2G case.
Information Minister, Ambika Soni, said, "This is what Chidamabaram had been saying all along but Swamy keeps on catching the TV cameras to get attention."
A statement from the Congress said, "Matter regarding Chidambaram's alleged involvement in 2G scam should be allowed to rest after Delhi court's verdict."
The Supreme Court on Thursday had refused to direct CBI to investigate the alleged role of Chidambaram leaving it to the Special Court trying the 2G case.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, which asked the lower court not to get influenced by its decision, had also refused to direct CBI to "investigate Chidambaram".
The Special Judge, on January 21, had reserved the order for February 4 on the plea of Swamy.
KEY POINTS OF JUDGMENT
he following are the key points of the verdict:
* There is no material on record to show that P. Chidambaram was acting malafide in fixing the price of spectrum at the 2001 level or in permitting dilution of equity by the two companies.
* These two acts are not per se illegal and there is no further material on record to show any other incriminating act on the part of P. Chidambaram.
* A decision taken by a public servant does not become criminal for simple reason that it has caused loss to the public exchequer or resulted in pecuniary advantage to others. Merely attending meetings and taking decisions therein is not a criminal act.
* It (decision) must have the taint of use of corrupt or illegal means or abuse of his official position by public servant for obtaining pecuniary advantage by him for himself or for any other person or obtaining of pecuniary advantage by him without any public interest.
* In the absence of any other incriminating act on his (Chidambaram) part, it cannot be said that he was prima facie party to the criminal conspiracy. There is no evidence on record that he was acting in pursuit to the criminal conspiracy, while being party to the two decisions regarding non-revision of the spectrum pricing and dilution of equity by the two companies.
* There is no evidence of any substantive act being committed by him. A bit of evidence here and a bit there does not constitute prima facie evidence for showing existence of a criminal conspiracy.
* A bare perusal of the allegations and the evidence, led in support thereof, reveals that neither are there any allegations nor is evidence against P. Chidambaram to the effect that he played any role in the subversion of the process of issuance of letters of intent (LOI), UAS (Univeral Access Service) licences and allocation of spectrum in 2007-08.
* The subversion of the process of issuance of letters of intent, UAS licences and allocation of spectrum included arbitrary fixation of the cut-off date, filing and procuring of applications for UAS licences on behalf of ineligible companies, violation of first-come first-served policy in the issuance of LOIs, UAS licences and allocation of spectrum and payment and receipt of bribe.
* All these incriminating acts were allegedly done by the minister/officials of the department of telecommunications, ministry of information and broadcasting, government of India and by private persons.
* However, both of these acts (fixing the price of the spectrum licence at 2001 level and permitting two companies), attributed to him, are not per se illegal or violative of any law.
* He (Chidambaram) agreed with A. Raja not to revise or revisit the entry fee or spectrum charge as discovered in 2001. Non-revision of prices is not an illegal act by itself.
CHRONOLOGY
Dec 15, 2010: Swamy moves Special CBI court seeking prosecution of the then telecom minister A Raja in 2G scam and his (Swamy's) appointment as public prosecutor.
Jan 7, 2011: Court holds Swamy's complaint against A Raja "maintainable".
Mar 25, 2011: Swamy's complaint transferred to special court set up at the instance of the Supreme Court to try all cases related to 2G scam.
Aug 23, 2011: Swamy moves SC for CBI probe against home Mminister and the then finance minister P Chidambaram in the 2G case.
Aug 26, 2011: Swamy tells special CBI court that he will file a plea before it to make Chidambaram a co-accused.
Sept 8, 2011: SC directs Swamy to submit his correspondence with the CBI in connection with his plea to investigate Chidambaram's alleged role in the 2G scam.
Sept 15, 2011: Swamy tells court he will bring new facts that Chidambaram and Raja had a role in deciding 2G spectrum prices and entry fee.
Sept 22, 2011: CBI defends Chidambaram in SC, blames Department of Telecom (DoT).
Oct 10, 2011: SC reserves order on Swamy's plea for a probe into the alleged role of Chidambaram in the 2G scam.
Jan 7, 2012: Swamy places on record various certified copies of the documents in support of his private complaint against Chidambaram.
Jan 21, 2012: Special court reserves order for February 4.
Feb 2, 2012: SC refuses to ask CBI to probe role of Chidambaram in 2G case and leaves it to the special court to decide the matter.
Feb 4, 2012: Special court dismisses Swamy's plea to make Chidambaram a co-accused.