2G Scam: After 5 years, 95 listings and 7 judges, cases before Delhi High Court may finally move forward

After over 5 years and 95 listing days, appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the acquittal of all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case finally seem to be moving forward in the Delhi High Court..Interestingly, the appeals filed by the central agencies have been dealt with by at least seven judges since March 2018, but are yet to cross the preliminary stage of leave to grant appeal.The CBI and the ED have challenged the trial court’s orders acquitting the likes for former Telecom Minister A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and many high-profile politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats..Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma – the seventh judge to deal with the case – heard the matter on Thursday and asked the prosecuting agencies (ED and CBI) as well as all the respondents in the case to file their written submissions on the issue of leave to grant appeal.As the CBI counsel expressed urgency in the matter and pressed for early hearing, the Court said that it will hear arguments on May 22 and 23.“No doubt that the judgment is nearly 1,700 pages and there are over 22,000 pages of witness statements. But I will just show My Lords four circumstances. I am quite sanguine that the Lordships will find that the leave to appeal must be granted,” the counsel submitted..An examination of the court records shows that there were at least two early hearing applications filed by the prosecution. Yet, the cases have lingered on.This, despite the fact that lengthy arguments on the issue of leave to grant appeal have taken place in the matter.Justice Brijesh Sethi heard the counsel daily for days before the COVID-19 pandemic halted proceedings and a national lockdown was imposed.Justice Sethi resumed hearing the matters on October 5, 2020, but on October 12, 2020, counsel for the respondents insisted that the Court should first decide the questions of the applicability of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 to the case in hand.In an order passed on November 23, 2020, Justice Sethi expressed his displeasure at the fact that many miscellaneous applications and petitions were filed by the respondents, because of which the Court could not decide the leave to appeal.“…this Court has to say with a heavy heart that limited time available at its disposal was consumed in hearing and disposal of miscellaneous applications and petitions, which were filed one after another on behalf of the respondents and this Court could not hear and decide the instant leave to appeal. All the above referred applications and writ petitions have been dismissed by this Court by passing very detailed orders of even date.”.Justice Sethi demitted office on November 30, 2020..After that, the case was listed before Justices Asha Menon and Yogesh Khanna. However, both the judges released the matters due to time constraints.Justice Menon superannuated on September 16, 2022 while Justice Khanna is set to retire in December 2023.The matter has also been dealt with by Justices SP Garg, Najmi Waziri and AK Chawla. Finally, the case has now come up before Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma. He has tagged together the three appeals filed by the CBI and ED. There is another set of matters related to the Aircel-Maxis case, but that batch has been kept separate and will be dealt with in July.