Legal News at Vakilno1.com

Supreme Court declines to oversee CWG probe

New Delhi, The Supreme Court Friday declined to interfere in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the scam in the preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

A bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said the petitioner Delhi Study Group, an NGO, has not pointed to any deficiency in the investigations already carried out by the investigating agency.

Describing the plea for the court’s intervention into the investigation as premature, the court said that the CBI was already investigating the matter and asked what was the basis for the allegation that the agency would not investigate all facets of the case.
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New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Friday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a bail plea by four officials of the erstwhile Satyam Computers Ltd accused in one of India’s biggest corporate frauds.

A division bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma issued the notice, returnable in two weeks, after senior counsel Ashok Desai told the court that the prosecution had completed its arguments and there were no grounds for tampering with evidence.

The officials who have moved the court are the company’s former vice president G. Ramakrishna, former senior manager D. Venkatpathy Raju, former assistant manager C.S. Srisailam and former head of the company’s internal audit V.S.P. Gupta.

TRAI, law ministry views on 2G unsolicited, CBI tells court

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Thursday rejected reports of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the law ministry and told a Delhi court that their views on the case were unsolicited.

CBI Special Public Prosecutor U.U. Lalit told the special CBI court, presided over by Judge O.P. Saini, that the law ministry’s report to department of telecommunications (DoT) defining the term “associates” is unsolicited. The report implied that some of the telecom licence applicants were not associated with each other.

The CBI refused to bring the TRAI and the law ministry’s report on record and told the court that if the it wanted it to be placed before it then it should pass an order.
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Apex Court orders CBI probe in Banda rape

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation the probe into the 2010 rape of a minor girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district allegedly by ruling Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi.

The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.M. Lodha handed over the investigation to CBI after the state government said that it had no objection to handing over to the federal agency the probe into the incident.

With the ordering of the investigation by the CBI, the court stayed further proceedings going on before the trial court in Uttar Pradesh.

The CBI which was initially reluctant to take up the investigation, however, Monday told the court that it was ready to undertake the investigation.
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Trial court to hear Gulberg carnage case: Apex court

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday directed a trial court to hear a petition by Zakia Jafri, widow of former MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulberg Society carnage during the 2002 riots, against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The petition alleged deliberate inaction on part of the Gujarat chief minister, his cabinet colleagues and some high-ranking state officials.

The court said the magistrate, before deciding on the complaint by Zakia Jafri, will issue her a notice and afford her an opportunity to be heard.

The court also asked the special investigation team (SIT) headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R.K. Raghvan to file its status report before the concerned magistrate.
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Chennai, The Madras High Court Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the central government’s notification exempting Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The PIL was filed by Vijayalakshmi Shanmugham an advocate.

“The court held that CBI is an intelligence and security agency handling many sensitivv cases,” Manikandan Vathan Chettiar, the petitioner’s counsel told IANS.

Dismissing the petition the court said collection of intelligence, investigation and trial are intertwined and several sensitive cases are registered on the basis of intelligence received.
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TRAI report on spectrum value submitted in CBI court

New Delhi, The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday placed the report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the 2G spectrum’s value before its special court hearing the airwaves’ allocation scam.

The report, which said it was not possible to predict with certainty the precise value of 2G spectrum that would have emerged in auction between 2001-08, was submitted to Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini.

The submission was in response to a petition filed by several of the accused including former communication minister A. Raja and DB Realty’s Shahid Balwa.

The agency has already submitted the report before the Supreme Court earlier this week. Placed before a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu, the report said it was a “tricky” exercise to estimate the annual value of spectrum for eight years.
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Accused says CBI tampering with 2G evidence

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court was told by an accused in the 2G case Tuesday that the Central Bureau of Investigation was tampering with evidence by asking the telecom regulator to revisit its opinion that the precise value of the spectrum, if it had been auctioned, could not be arrived at.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani told an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu that “your (CBI) intended correspondence so that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) should change its opinion amounts to tampering with evidence – a habit we (his client) are totally free of”.

Jethmalani was arguing on the bail plea of Unitech’s Sanjay Chandra. The court was hearing a plea by Chandra and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom challenging the Delhi High Court’s May 23 verdict rejecting their bail applications.
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2G case: Can’t deny us bail, two accused tell apex court

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court was told Monday that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that there was no loss to the exchequer in the allocation of 2G spectrum and the accused in judicial custody were entitled to bail.

The observation came during the arguments on bail for Sanjay Chandra of Unitech and Vinod Goenka of DB Reality, who are in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in the 2G scandal.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for accused, told the bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu that his clients were being denied bail and suffering incarceration only on the ground that the public exchequer suffered loss to the tune of Rs.30,000 crore.

The TRAI has given its opinion in response to a query by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the pricing issue in the allocation of 2G spectrum.
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No Maran role in Aircel deal, CBI tells apex court

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday told the Supreme Court that there was no evidence to suggest that former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran used coercive methods to force C. Sivasankaran to sell his stakes in telecom company Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis group.

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, told the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly that the CBI “may examine” the then finance minister Jaswant Singh over alleged wrongdoings in the communications ministry in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government.

He told the court that Jaswant Singh headed the empowered group of ministers (EGOM) when Arun Shourie was the communications minister between 2003-04.
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