2G spectrum allocation case: Citing ‘bad experience’, Supreme Court denies Ruia’s foreign travel

Essar vice-chairman Ravi Ruia

The Supreme Court Tuesday denied Essar vice-chairman Ravi Ruia permission to travel abroad, observing the court had a “bad experience” in the past when it allowed an accused to fly abroad but he never returned. Ruia is an accused in the case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2002.

Ruia’s lawyer senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had requested a bench led by Justice J S Khehar to allow him to leave India since Essar’s business interests were in UK, US, Canada and UAE. They submitted that he had never violated bail conditions. Singhvi said that Ruia is an NRI and holds a residency visa of UAE and he has visited abroad 43 times for several reasons during the pendency of trial but never ever violated the bail conditions. He added that Ruia’s elder brother could stand surety for his return and can even be sent to jail if he does not return.

However, special public prosecutor in 2G case Anand Grover opposed Ruia’s plea and said if he is allowed to go, he may not return and it would be difficult to bring him back to India because he is a Non Resident Indian.

At this, the bench responded: “We have had a bad experience earlier. We allowed a person like you to go and he said he will return but he did not. He was no less big than you in monetary terms. We don’t want to take chances now. We are now once bitten twice shy. We are not going to give liberty to anyone.” Singhvi replied that his client cannot be allowed to suffer “if some Mr X has cheated the court” but the court pointed out that Ruia was similarly situated and that it was not inclined to let him fly abroad at this juncture.