New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) Legal experts expressed differingviews on a special court verdict acquitting all accused in the2G spectrum allocation scam cases, with one of them sayingthat it was an example that how battles won in the SupremeCourt are often lost in lower courts.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan expressed "surprise" overthe outcome of the trial, while former Attorney General SoliSorabjee refrained from terming the judgement as "good or bad"but was quick to add that it can be challenged in the highercourt.
With varying opinions coming on the verdict, one sectiondubbed the acquittal as "unfortunate" and opined that it wouldpolitically raise a serious situation, while another sectionsaid that a "bubble was created" which burst due to lack ofevidence.
"I am surprised. Have not gone through the verdict yetbut this shows how battles won in the Supreme Court are oftenlost in courts below," Dhavan told PTI.
Sorabjee said this is not a "final verdict" and can betested in appeals before higher courts.
"It is only a special court verdict which can be appealedagainst. The CBI can appeal in the High Court. I have not readthe judgement so cannot say if it was good or bad," Sorabjee,who was the top law officer during the previous NDA regime,told PTI.
However, senior advocates Ajit Kumar Sinha and DushyantDave were forthcoming in their views and questioned theprosecution for the debacle.
While Sinha, a former high court judge, termed theoutcome as "unfortunate", Dave said "it shows a botched-upinvestigation in the matter where the prosecution failed toprove the case" and "this verdict creates serious doubts onthe investigating agencies especially premier agency like theCBI".
"Politically it raises a serious situation in thecountry. We have to see it in the political spectrum in a longway," he said.
Sinha was of the opinion that the acquittal in the caseswere surprising as the apex court while scrapping the 122licences for the 2G spectrum had held that due process was notfollowed when the radio waves were auctioned during the tenureof A Raja as the telecom minister in the first UPA regime.
He also toed the findings of the special court which saidthe CBI had started its case with "great enthusiasm andardour" but at the final stage of the trial, the SpecialPublic Prosecutor and the regular CBI prosecutor moved in "twodifferent directions without any coordination".
"They (the CBI and ED) started on a good note and laterit became very very lacklustre and there was no evidence tocorroborate nor it was taken with all sincerity and thatreally led to acquittal of each and every accused and itsunfortunate," he said.
However, differing with Sinha and Dave, senior advocateVikas Singh and former High Court judge R S Sodhi saidprosecution did not have enough material to establish itscase.
"There was lack of evidence. It speaks volumes of ourjudiciary. They had the best special public prosecutor in thematter. There was nothing in the matter. A bubble was createdand it has now been burst," Sodhi said.
Taking a little different take, Singh maintained thatscam was only, if at all, with regard to the eligibilitybeing changed from first-come-first-served.
"However, the prosecution did not have enough materialsto establish even that and that is why everybody has gonescot-free in this case," he said.
Further, Singh said that he maintained right from thebeginning that this was never a scam.
"This whole decision to give spectrum at those pre-determined prices can never be a scam at all because if thegovernment decides to give infrastructure to people at cheaperrates through these companies, then it can't be a scam," headded. PTI RRT AG UK PKS ABA SKV SJK RKSSMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.