New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday granted time to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its reply to an appeal by 2G case accused R.K. Chandolia, a former aide of ex-telecom minister A. Raja, challenging the Delhi High Court order putting his bail on hold.
The CBI was also granted time to file its reply on the bail plea of former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, also accused in the multi-crore rupee 2G spectrum scam. Behura has challenged the December 16, 2011, order of Delhi high court rejecting his bail plea.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said its Dec 7, 2011 interim order suspending the Delhi High Court’s direction of putting Chandolia’s bail on hold will continue.
Chandolia was granted bail by the special CBI court on Dec 1, 2011, but the Delhi High Court Dec 2, stayed it taking suo motu note of a newspaper report on bail granted to him.
However, Chandolia had already walked out of jail, and the high court said that its direction putting on hold the CBI court order will not be made effective if he was already set free.
The high court, while staying the Special CBI court’s order granting bail to Chandolia, had noted grant of bail to him “is going to have an impact on the bail application of Siddharth Behura, on which order has been reserved….”
“… question arises as to whether the order of grant of bail was just, proper or arbitrary or unreasonable having regards to the facts of the case and the allegations made qua him,” it said.
Chandolia, in his petition, told the apex court that the high court cancelled the order granting him bail merely going by the newspaper reports and without “seeing the reason stated in the order while granting bail”.
The high court order, the petition said, was “unreasonable” which “does not stand in the eyes of the law”. It said that “the single judge mechanically without following the proper procedure of law passed the impugned order”.
In the case of Behura, the apex court had issued notice on Jan 2, 2012. Behura, along with former telecom minister A. Raja and his former secretary R.K. Chandolia, were arrested Feb 2, 2011 in the 2G spectrum case.
While denying bail to Behura, the high court had observed that the “severity of accusation and the prima facie evidence gathered by the prosecution and the quantum of sentence which it carries, the petitioner does not deserve the grant of bail”.
While rejecting Behura’s plea of being treated at par with other five accused who were granted bail, including DMK MP Kanimozhi, the high court held that being a public servant, he was under greater obligation of upholding the public trust.
“A public servant has greater obligation to discharge his functions as a holder of public trust with transparency, probity and to watch the interest of the public exchequer,” it said.
The matter will come up for hearing March 13.
