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NEW DELHI: (AMN) The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the government of India on Ratan Tata‘s petition regarding the leakage of Niira Radia tapes.
The apex court on Thursday asked the government to respond within 10 days to the petition filed by Tata chief Ratan Tata seeking a direction to the government to probe leakage of audio tapes containing his private conversation with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and stop their further publication.
The apex court issued notices to Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, CBI, Income Tax Department and Finance Ministry asking them to file an affidavit on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing on December 13. The court also directed that two magazines – Open and Outlook, which had published the conversations, be made parties to the petition by Tata and issued notices to them. Appearing for various government departments, Attorney General G E Vahanvati accepted notices on their behalf.
In another observation the Apex Court on Thursday came down heavily on former Telecom Minister A Raja for bypassing and even overruling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advice to defer the allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days. The bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly also took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja’s letter to the Prime Minister, saying it amounted to showing disrespect to the highest authority in the country. Resuming hearing on a petition on the spectrum scam, the court raised questions on Raja ignoring the Law ministry’s advice seeking opinion of the AG as "out of context".