Anil Ambani may have to appear in 2G court today

New Delhi: The possibility of Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani having to depose as a witness in the 2G scam on Thursday looked real after neither the Supreme Court nor the trial court on Wednesday agreed to accept separate pleas to postpone his court appearance.      The apex court refused to accept Reliance Telecom Ltd's plea seeking deferment of Anil Ambani's appearance as a witness. It merely limited itself to saying that it would pass an order "as early as possible" even as it accepted the plea seeking deferment of the appearance of Bharti TelecomchairmanSunilMittal and Essar promoter Ravi Ruia as accused in the spectrum allocation case during the NDA rule.      The day also saw special CBI judge O P Saini, who is trying the 2G case, dismissing a similar plea by RTL seeking postponement of Ambani's deposition. The judge turned down the argument that the deposition of Ambani and his wife Tina as witnesses would prejudice the trial.      In his four page-order, Saini noted that no such prayer for postponement of examination of witnesses was made by either Anil or Tina Ambani. Bench refuses to clarify on Ruia, Mittal appearance  New Delhi: Special CBI judge O P Saini on Wednesday refused to postpone Anil Ambani's deposition as a witness in the 2G case. "Furthermore, the witness for tomorrow (Anil Ambani) has already been served (summons) and an accommodation was granted to him earlier also when he was summoned for July 26. At that time also, the accused had not stated that the examination of these witnesses would cause prejudice to it. I see no reason as to how any prejudice would be caused to the accused, if these witnesses are examined now," the CBI judge said.      "Since no prayer has been made by Anil Ambani, who is to appear as witness tomorrow, and plea of Tina Ambani, who is to appear as witness day after tomorrow, is pending disposal, I do not wish to say anything more, more so when the instant application has been moved by an accused and not by any witness. Accordingly, I find no merit in the application," Saini said.      Arguing before an SC bench, RTL's counsel Mukul Rohatgi sought deferment of examination of the Ambanis as new witnesses in the 2G case. Rohagti argued that with the trial court commencing examination of new witnesses from August 19, half of RTL's petition challenging the summoning of witnesses at the fag end of the trial had already become infructuous.      But the bench said, "We will pronounce the order on the applications seeking clarification in our earlier orders (which had shut the door for accused to approach the HC against trial court orders) as early as possible." However, the bench deferred appearance of Bharti Telecom chief Sunil Mittal and Essar promoter Ravi Ruia. For Mittal and Ruia, who were summoned as accused by the trial court despite the CBI not naming them in the chargesheet filed in the case of alleged irregular allotment of excess spectrum during the NDA regime, the bench refused to clarify whether the SC had earlier ordered deferment of their appearance.