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Sunil Bharti Mittal v. Central Bureau of Investigation

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 2015)Decided 9 Jan 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 2015
Chief Justice H.L. Dattu · Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice A.K. Sikri

Background

This arose out of the 2G Spectrum scam investigation. A Special Court, while taking cognizance of the CBI's charge sheet against certain accused in connection with alleged irregularities in grant of telecom licences, also summoned Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Cellular's chairman) and Ravi Ruia (an executive of another group) as additional accused, even though they were not named as accused by the CBI in its charge sheet, reasoning that they were the directing minds behind their companies' conduct. Mittal, Ruia, and an NGO (Telecom Watchdog, in a separate connected appeal) challenged different aspects of the Special Court's summoning order before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that criminal liability of a company does not automatically extend to its directors or officers merely because of their position: a company and its officers/directors are separate legal entities, and an individual can only be made vicariously/criminally liable for a company's acts if there is a specific statutory provision deeming them liable, or sufficient material showing their personal direction/consent with criminal intent. Since the Special Judge had summoned Mittal and Ruia purely on the erroneous legal premise that their status as "guiding spirit" of the company was itself enough, without any such statutory provision or specific evidentiary finding of personal culpability, the summoning order against them could not be sustained. The appeals of Mittal and Ruia were allowed and the summoning order against them set aside, while the separate appeal by Telecom Watchdog (seeking different relief) was dismissed; the Court left it open to the Special Judge to reconsider the material afresh, or to add them later under Section 319 CrPC if sufficient evidence of their personal involvement emerges during trial.

Lesson Learnt

Being the chairman, director, or "guiding mind" of a company is not, by itself, enough to make a person personally criminally liable for the company's alleged offences: courts require either a specific statute fixing such liability or concrete evidence of that individual's personal involvement before summoning them as an accused.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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