The Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the finance minister P Chidambaram on the alleged irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation. The decision of the apex court came in as a major relief to the Centre, which has been facing severe criticism from political circles over several issues. The bench comprising Justice G S Singvi and K S Radhakrishnan said that there was no prima facie material to prove Chidambaram as guilty in 2G scan.  Therefore, the special leave petition filed against the judgment of CBI court cannot be entertained, they added. It may be noted that the SLP was filed by Janata Party supremo Subramanian Swamy along with an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation. They, in their petition, appealed to the court to conduct a probe on Chidambaram and make him a co-accused in 2G spectrum scam.

Notably, this is the second time wherein Chidambaram got a clean chit. Earlier, special CBI Court said Chidambaram was not involved in any criminal conspiracy and didn't get any pecuniary advantage. The union minister Veerappa Moily, who welcomed the judgment has said that the opposition attack on Chidambaram was unwarranted.  It may be recalled that Subramanian moved Supreme Court on February 23 challenging the verdict of a trial court.

(AW Phani)