SC clears Chidambaram in 2G

The petitions had challenged a February 4 judgment by a Special CBI court and sought an investigation into Chidambaram’s role in the spectrum allotment. They also wanted him added as an accused in the case saying he had helped Raja’s alleged corrupt motives.

However,the apex court,after going through the material put on record by the two petitioners,noted that” “no material is available,even prima facie,to conclude that Chidambaram had abused his official position,or used any corrupt or illegal means for obtaining any pecuniary advantage for himself or any other persons,including Raj”.

Swamy said he was disappointed by the verdict and would seek a review. “I did not talk about conspiracy. I spoke about loss to the nation. It is a bad judgment,” he said.

The opposition BJP said that Chidambaram remain “constitutionally and politically accountable” as the nation suffered a loss in spectrum pricing in 2008. “The loss has been caused to the government. Chidambaram was a part of the decision-making process. He is constitutionally accountable,remains politically accountable and that is what we are seeking inside Parliament and will continue to seek in the JP”,BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The 59-page judgment of the court,however,said that a criminal conspiracy between Chidambaram and Raja could not be inferred on the basis of a mere fact that there were official discussions between the officers of the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Telecom and also between the two ministers.”

“Suspicion,however strong,cannot take the place of legal proof and the meeting between Chidambaram and Raja would not by itself be sufficient to infer the existence of a criminal conspiracy so as to indict Chidambaram…the allegation that Chidambaram had overruled his offic’rs’ views and had conspired with Raja is without any bas”s,” the bench said.

The court was also not impressed with the argument that had Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervened,the scam could have been avoid. “A wrong judgment or an inaccurate or incorrect approach or poor management by itself,even after due deliberations between ministers or even with the Prime Minister,by itself cannot be said to be a product of criminal conspiracy,” the court said.

Citing several official notes exchanged between different ministries and departments,the court also dismissed allegations about Chidambaram’s complicity in fixing the price of the spectrum licence at 2001 levels and also permitting Swan and Unitech – the two companies that got the licence – to dilute their stake even before their services were rolled out.

“We are of the considered view that materials on record do not show that Chidambaram had abused his position as a Minister of Finance or conspired or colluded with Raja so as to fix low entry fee by non-visiting spectrum charges fixed in the year 2001. No materials are also made available,even for a prima facie conclusion,that Chidambaram had deliberately allowed dilution of equity of the two companies,Swan and Unite,” the bench said.

Dubbing “unfounded” the allegation that Chidambaram attempted to hide the illegalities in the award of licences,the court noted that on the other hand,Chidambaram was advocating the fact that the most important method of allocating the spectrum would be through auction. The bench as referring to one of Chidambaram’s notes in which he described spectrum as a scarce resource and said that the most transparent method of allocating spectrum would  be through auction.