The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea of Bharti Airtel’s CMD Sunil Mittal who had challenged  the March 19 order of the special 2G court asking him to appear on April 11before it along with Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia, and Asim Ghosh, former CEO of Vodafone Essar.

The case is related to alleged irregularities in allocation of additional 2G spectrum in 2002. The three were named in the CBI’s charge sheet as an accused, saying there was “enough material” to proceed against him in the case.

"The special judge failed to consider the settled law in the context of vicarious criminal liability of Managing Directors/Directors and other officers of corporations that in the absence of specific statutory provisions making individual actors liable, there shall be no vicarious criminal liability imposed on any individual for acts of any corporation," Mittal said in the petition.

"Commission of an offence by raising a legal fiction or by creating a vicarious liability in terms of provisions of a statute must be expressly stated. The Managing Director or Directors of a company cannot be said to have committed an offence merely because they are holders of offices," it said.

The special court hearing the 2G case had summoned them after taking cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet filed against Bharti Airtel and others for alleged irregularities in the allocation of additional spectrum during the NDA regime.

The CBI in December 2012 had named former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms, Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Pvt Ltd (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd as accused in a chargesheet .

The court said that there are enough evidences against three who are in control of accused companies in the case.

Airtel in statement had said that the requests for additional spectrum allocations to improve the Quality of Service and to raise the standards of mobile telephony in India to global standards had been raised by several telecom operators and by Industry Associations since 1999/2000” Airtel had said in a statement.

The apex court will also hear Bharti Airtel's plea challenging the Delhi High Court order for vacating its  order ensuring that the  company stops 3G roaming pact which the government had declared as  illegal.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on March 15 had asking Airtel to stop 3G intra-circle roaming facilities in seven circles where it did not have the spectrum.

DoT also levied a penalty of Rs 350 crore (Rs 50 crore per circle) for violating the licence terms and conditions.
 
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