Supreme Court warns Maxis boss of stake sale for evading court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up Maxis group owner T. Ananda Krishnan of Malaysia for “running away” from Indian court of law and asked him to appearance before Indian court, failing which 50 per cent shares in Aircel, in which he has major stake, will be auctioned.

Aircel and Reliance Communication have entered into an agreement to merge the two entities and 50 per cent shares of Aircel, valued at '. 20,000 crores, will be transferred to RCom.

The apex court, which in the earlier hearing had said it “cannot tolerate that a person uses India’s national resources and evades the law,” maintained that these accused must have to come and “answer summons of the court”.

The court took offence to their having evaded court summons and warrants in the case in which former communications minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and others were chargesheeted by CBI in a probe related to money trail of around Rs 600 crore allegedly used as bribe in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

Maran brothers were yesterday discharged in the case by a special court which had segregated the case of Krishnan and Marshal as they have failed to comply with summons to appear before it.

Chief Justice J.S. Khehar heading a bench which also includes Justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud told senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi for Aircel that the court will ask the Centre to auction the shares, keeping the value at Rs 20,000 crores, payable to the banks where the shares are pledged. If the auction price is less than Rs 20,000 crore then RCom will get it or it will go to other entity.    

Mr Singhvi told that court that it cannot use Aircel to procure the presence of Ananda Krishnan. He said there is no outflow of money or sale as it is only a merger through transfer of shares. 

The CJI observed, “He (Maxis group owner) 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. We will not allow merger of Reliance Communication wireless with Aircel, unless Rs 20,000 crore debt of nationalised banks is liquidated. We will adopt any means to ensure his presence.”

In the last hearing on January 6, the court had indicated that it proposed to restrain the transfer of shares and sought response of Ananda Krishnan. Today the Centre informed the court that advertisements were issued in two newspapers in Malaysia requiring the presence of Ananda Krishnan in the court and yet he did not respond.

Taking note of this, the bench in a brief order said, “We are of the view that it is necessary that some other appropriate order is passed to achieve the purpose of his presence besides the order earlier contemplated (to stay the transfer of shares). If the accused Ananda Krishnan and his one-time key aide and Director Augustus Ralph Marshal fail to present themselves before Indian courts it might not be to open to them at a later stage to object to the monetary loss that may be caused to them.”      

The CJI refused to accept Aircel’s plea that Ananda Krishnan is not under its control. The CJI after going through the share holdings pointed out how the Malaysian company owned by Ananda Krishnan controlled Aircel-Maxis. 

Referring to Ananda Krishnan, the CJI said “here is a person who is an absconder from 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 submitted to the process of law and the Supreme Court.” In an apparent reference to industrialist Vijay Mallya the CJI also observed “people who are defaulters are running away from law. We will not allow that to happen.”  

The bench passed this order on an application from Centre for Public Interest Litigation alleging that Aircel was proposed to transfer its shares and a communication to this effect has been sent to Mumbai stock exchange by Reliance Communications and Airtel. Maxis Group, a Malaysian company, owns 74% stakes in Aircel which was originally granted 2G spectrum licences in November 2006.

In a related development the special public prosecutor in the 2G cases, Anand Grover today moved the Supreme Court urging it not to release the properties of Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran, attached by it in the Aircel-Maxis deal case. He said he was filing this appeal against Thursday’s order in his capacity as court appointed SPP as it will take more time for the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to prefer the appeals.  He said the trial court should be directed to accept bail bonds from Maran brothers even though they have been discharged from the case. 

The CJI told the SPP “when there is no existence of proceeds of crime, where is the question of attachment. There is no money laundering. We don’t find any merit in your submission that bail bonds should be furnished after their discharge.” The CJI while granting further time to the SPP asked him to first convince the Bench that an appeal can be filed directly in the Supreme Court against the discharge by a trial court.

When BJP MP Subramanian Swamy sought a probe against former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for his role in granting FIPB approvals for the investments, the Bench said this issue will be heard on February 10 along with all the other appeals.