New Delhi, Feb. 3: The Supreme Court today threatened to "auction" Malaysian firm Maxis' assets worth "Rs 20,000 crore" if owner T. Ananda Krishnan didn't appear before it soon, a day after former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran was discharged in a corruption case tied to the company.
"He (Krishnan) doesn't care for the law or the Supreme Court of this country, and yet you people stand up to defend him? One must subject himself to the process of law," a bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar told senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Aircel, the Indian telecom firm owned by Maxis.
The bench, also comprising Justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud, gave the warning while dealing with a PIL filed by an NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation. The plea sought a stay on the sale of Aircel's spectrum to rivals Reliance Communication and Airtel. Aircel had originally been allotted 2G spectrum licences in 2006.
On January 6 this year, the apex court had asked the Centre to issue notices in two leading Malaysian newspapers asking Krishnan and Ralph Marshal, another top Maxis official, to appear before it. Today, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi, representing the government, said such ads were placed but the Maxis duo had not responded so far.
Rejecting Singhvi's contention that Aircel was not under the control of Krishnan, hence, he could not be punished for not showing up, an angry CJI Khehar said: "Here is a person who is an absconder from the law, does not respond to summons, yet it is being argued that nothing wrong is happening. We won't permit someone to benefit from the allotted spectrum unless he submits to the process of law."
Justice Khehar then observed that "one after the other, people are running away from this country, yet you are doing nothing". The remark appeared an oblique reference to liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL czar Lalit Modi, who have been abroad since being accused of financial offences in India
Later, the bench passed a written order saying if Krishnan and Marshal did not appear, "it might not be to open to them later to object to the monetary loss that may be caused to them".
The CBI had alleged that Dayanidhi as UPA-I telecom minister had forced Aircel owner Sivasankaran to sell his stake to Krishnan. Later, in a quid pro quo, Maxis had invested Rs 650 crore in Sun TV network, run by the Marans, it had alleged. Yesterday, a CBI court ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to prosecute Maran and others.
