The Delhi High Court will take up on January 10 the plea of Essar Teleholdings Ltd and Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd — facing charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy in connection with the 2G case — that the Special Court has no jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The firms had claimed that since the charges made out by the CBI against them were only that of criminal conspiracy and cheating and not under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Special Court was not empowered to hear the matter.
However, the Special Judge had last month taken cognisance of the CBI chargesheet and had decided to go by the Delhi High Court notification of March 2011 that allowed trial on all 2G cases to go on in the Special Court.
The CBI also had chosen to file the chargesheet before the Special Court since the latter was set up expressly on the directions of the Supreme Court to hear the 2G spectrum cases.
The firms and the other accused named in the CBI's chargesheet including Mr Ravikant Ruia, Mr Anshuman Ruia, Ms Kiran Khaitan, Mr I P Khaitan and Mr Vikash Saraf, then decided to move the High Court against the Special Court's decision.
Though the High Court was slated to hear the matter on Thursday, it had to be deferred to January 10 as the Bench slated did not sit on Thursday.