NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge Justice GS Singhvi, who cancelled all 122 2G spectrum licences in 2012,, on Friday tore apart Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s criticism of the CBI special court’s verdict on Thursday acquitting all 18 accused, including then telecom minister A Raja and his DMK MP colleague Kanimozhi, claiming the Apex Court’s judgment had already settled the matter.
He said the issue before the CBI court that acquitted Raja and others was “completely different” from the issue before the Supreme Court in 2012, in which all the licences issued by Raja were cancelled. He said the case before the top court was the allocation of spectrum without auction, while the CBI court was to see whether there was a conspiracy and corruption in the allocation.
“Whether there was a conspiracy in spectrum allocation and any corruption was not before us — that was for the CBI court to decide,” the former judge said, underlining that the Apex Court had decided the civil aspect of the issue while the CBI court went into the criminal aspects.
“The issue before the Supreme Court was the allocation of spectrum without auction – the fundamental principle of distribution of natural resources through auction,” he said, adding that his Bench had held it as impermissible.
