Historic judgement in the 2G case

A historic day for India’s democracy. Hope is still alive for the Indian Republic. Full text of the 2G judgement is available here. But I can’t resist posting a few words from the Supreme Court order.

(To understand how big a loot of public money the 2G scam has been, read this article written more than a year ago)

So here we go: 

“The material produced before the Court shows that the Minister of C&IT wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the Public Exchequer….”

“…This arbitrary action of the Minister of C&IT though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate companies who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services……”

“The cut off date…….was not made public …… and the first-come-first served principle, which was being followed since 2003 was changed by him at the last moment …..This enabled some of the applicants, who had access either to the Minister or the officers of the DoT to get the bank drafts etc. prepared towards performance guarantee etc. of about 1600 crores……..”

“The manner in which the exercise for grant of LoIs to the applicants was conducted on ....... leaves no room for doubt that every thing was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance change in the implementation of the first-come-first served principle. As a result of this, some of the companies which had submitted applications in 2004 or 2006 were pushed down in the priority and those who had applied between August and September 2007 succeeded in getting higher seniority entitling them to allocation of spectrum on priority basis….”

And this:

“…….we consider it imperative to observe that but for the vigilance of some enlightened citizens who held important constitutional and other positions and discharge their duties in larger public interest and Non Governmental Organisations who have been constantly fighting for clean governance and accountability of the constitutional institutions, unsuspecting citizens and the Nation would never have known how scarce natural resource spared by the Army has been grabbed by those who enjoy money power and who have been able to manipulate the system”

And this:

Respondent Nos………who were benefited by a wholly arbitrary and unconstitutional action taken by the DoT for grant of UAS Licences and allocation of spectrum in 2G band and who off-loaded their stakes for many thousand crores in the name of fresh infusion of equity or transfer of equity shall pay …….. Respondent Nos. …………too had been benefited by the wholly arbitrary and unconstitutional exercise undertaken by the DoT for grant of UAS Licences and allocation of spectrum in 2G band…..”

(Emphasis mine in all the above paragraphs).

Is the government now trying to buy the judiciary?

At a time when the judiciary is emerging as the only hope for the people of this country, one suspects whether the government is now trying to buy the judges too.

A report suggests the Andaman & Nicobar Administration has appointed Mr. Deep Chaim Kabir, son of Supreme Court judge Altamas Kabir to ‘assist’ the Public Prosecutor in certain cases. It is alleged that Mr. Deep Kabir is ineligible for the appointment as he has only four years of experience where  ten years is required and there are several other eligible advocates who could have been appointed. Mr.  Deep Kabir will be paid a fee of Rs.30,000 per day, whereas the Public Prosecutor himself gets just Rs.25,000 per month. Plus, Mr. Kabir being based in Kolkata, the administration will also bear the expenses of his travel from Kolkata to Port Blair, accommodation, food etc.

The Andaman & Nicobar Islands Bar Association has been boycotting the court proceedings since July 29, 2011 on the issue. Detailed reports are available here and  here.

Justice Altamas Kabir is hearing a key petition in the Supreme Court regarding the constituting of the SIT (Special Investigating Team) to monitor all black money cases in India. He is also tipped to be the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.

All criminals are equal, but some are more equal than others

After the Second World War, Nazi War criminals were hunted down, arrested and tried in Courts of Law (remember the Nuremberg trials, the Auschwitz trials and so on). More recently, Radovan Karadzic, accused of war crimes and genocide in Bosnia, including the Srebrenica massacre where 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed, was arrested and is currently being tried in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. But apparently, a different yardstick applies to criminals such as Saddam Hussain, Osama Bin Laden and some others. No court cases for them, but instant justice. 

All criminals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Obviously, Osama was not one of them.