A bad judgment delivered by the 2G Special Court, totally ignoring the findings of the Supreme Court!

You can have errors in a judgment based on mistakes. But what if the judgment itself is a huge mistake? Judge OP Saini’s judgment in the 2G scam, acquitting all the accused in what can be called as India’s biggest loot, appears to be so! The 1500 more page judgment simply accuses the Prosecution and Investigators on each and every point, completely forgetting the fact that this evidence was vetted by the Supreme Court’s (SC) 2G Scam Monitoring Bench! In what can only be termed as an act of wonder, the trial court’s Judgment was 180 degrees opposite to that of the Supreme Court’s 2012 landmark judgment detailing all the violations in the 2G Scam and cancelling all the 122 telecom licenses. The SC Judgment clearly says that the main accused, the then Telecom Minister A. Raja acted in a dishonest way.

The material produced before the Court shows that the Minister (Raja) wanted to favor some companies at the cost of public exchequer,” said the Judgment delivered by Supreme Court Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly.

It must be borne in mind that the SC judgment was further ratified in a Presidential Reference! The apex court indicted the first accused Raja and the trial court judge OP Saini says that there is no evidence! Huh? Are we talking about the same case here?

“The exercise under taken under the leadership of the Minister (A. Raja) was wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of the equality…..

“The material produced before the Court shows that the Minister (Raja) wanted to favor some companies at the cost of public exchequer,” said the Judgment delivered by Supreme Court Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly. How can a trial judge’s verdict simply say that the evidence provided was not enough and sufficient? How can a set of documents convince the Supreme Court but not a trial court?

The apex court judgment went on: “Arbitrary action of the Minister (Raja) though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate companies who did not have any experience in the dealing with the telecom services.” This trial court judgment is a black chapter in the history of the judgments in the judiciary. This judgment shows how crony capitalism and corrupt lobbies survive.

This is another portion from the Supreme Court Judgment which ensured the auction of all natural resources. “The manner in which the exercise for grant of LOI(Letter of Intent) to the applicants was conducted on January 10, 2008, leaves no room for doubt that everything was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance change in the implementation of the first-come-first-served principle.” If the Apex court is convinced of fraud, how can the trial court disagree? This was a bad judgment, a sick judgment, and a dubious judgment and should be criticized in the strongest words.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Anand Grover already declared that they will be appealing against the “bad” 2G verdict. The ED has rightly termed the judgment is “erroneous”.

The main petitioners Subramanian Swamy and Prashant Bhushan lashed out against the judgment pronounced by trial court Judge OP Saini. Swamy said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should on a war footing devise strategies to fight against the probe and prosecution of corruption. He said that this not a setback and just an aberration and that the Government must immediately appeal, alleging internal sabotage. Swamy also said that the appointment of 2G accused advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Ranjit Kumar as Attorney General and Solicitor General respectively gave the wrong messages.

In a Press Conference convened after the judgment[1], Swamy said that many honest officers like ED’s Investigating Officer Rajeshwar Singh were still being hunted by many Chidambaram friendly personnel in the Finance Ministry headed by Arun Jaitley. The BJP leader said that the PM’s recent visit to DMK Chief Karunanidhi’s home was not right. Swamy also said that the PM should constitute a War-Council like group to deal with corruption cases.

On his part, Prashant Bhushan said that the 2G verdict of the trial court was “totally wrong, shameful and shocking”.

The acquittal of all 2G scam accused by trial court is grossly wrong&sends a signal that influential people are not accountable in this country's judicial system.There was considerable evidence of Benami licences,fixing of the 1st Come 1st served system&also bribes in this. Shame

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 21, 2017

The acquittal of all accused in the 2G scam is shocking. There was a mountain of documentary evidence in the CBI chargesheet about the manner in which illegal gratification was paid to DMK's Kalaignar TV. The manner of giving licences itself was a scam.https://t.co/QyetX0k3ev

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 21, 2017

[1] Swamy Press Conference after 2G verdict – Dec 21, 2017, PGurus.com

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