New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday admitted the CBI's appeal challenging the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja, firms and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said that based on the material on record and the submissions made by the lawyers for the parties, a prima facie case is made out by the CBI which requires deeper examination and the appeal needs to be heard in detail.

"Leave to appeal is granted. List the appeal for hearing in May," the judge said.

The high court passed the judgement on CBI's "leave to appeal", paving the way for dealing with the appeal on merits against the trial court's verdict.

The appeal was filed by the CBI in 2018.

"Leave to appeal" is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.

The judge had reserved his decision on this aspect on March 14.

The special court had, on December 21, 2017, acquitted Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and ED cases related to the 2G scam.

(Inputs from PTI. Except for the headline, Republic has not edited the content)