JUDGMENT

R.F. Nariman, J.

1. Leave granted in SLP (Crl.) No.2978 of 2014.

2. These matters arise as a sequel to the judgment delivered by this Court on 1.7.2013 by which three writ petitions filed by Essar Teleholdings Limited, Loop Telecom Limited and Vikash Saraf were dismissed by a Division Bench of this Court.

3. The brief facts necessary to appreciate how the controversy arose before this Court are as follows.

4. CBI registered an FIR RC No.DAI 2009 A 0045 dated 21.10.2009 alleging offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and criminal conspiracy in respect of the grant of 122 UAS licenses in the year 2008 against various unknown Government officials, persons and companies. The gist of the offence was set out in the penultimate paragraph of the said FIR, which is set out as follows:

“Thus, the concerned officials of Department of Telecommunications in criminal conspiracy with private persons/companies by abusing their official position granted Unified Access Service Licenses to a few selected companies at nominal rate by rejecting the applications of others without any valid reason thereby causing wrongful loss to the Government of India and a corresponding wrongful