Even as the Centre in the Supreme Court swore by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s track record of maintaining high standards of propriety in public life, the top court on Thursday sought an affidavit on “his behalf” explaining the reasons for the delay in deciding an application for sanction to prosecute former telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G spectrum scam case.
Giving the government till Saturday to submit the affidavit in response to Janata Party president and former Union minister Subrama-nian Swamy’s petition, a bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said, “It is an extremely serious matter. We must know what has been kept back.”
A brief order for filing the affidavit came even as Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam came up with the entire PMO records pertaining to the application sent to the PM on November 29, 2008. The S-G also submitted that every letter of Dr Swamy had been dealt with by the PMO.
Not preferring to go through the PMO papers at
this stage, the bench, which also took on record a copy of the CAG report, observed that the findings of the CAG were “revealing”. As the S-G made every effort to avoid an order for an affidavit, asserting that the records were ready for the perusal of the court and that he himself had gone through them, the bench said filing the affidavit was necessary to afford a chance to Dr Swamy to submit a reply.
“We are giving you a chance to put it on affidavit,” the bench told the S-G when he said “every letter of Dr Swamy has been dealt with”. The government law officer added: “I went through the records personally. He has been answered adequately and we don’t want to appear that we are delaying the issue. The authorities have most appropriately dealt with it.”
When the court asked Dr Swamy whether he agreed with the statement of the S-G, he said, “The only communication I received from the PM is on March 19, 2010. I have received no other letter from the PM.” Dr Swamy added, “I got a letter from Raja explaining why my request for permission to prosecute him has no merit.”
In response to Dr Swamy’s reply, Justice Ganguly said, “He (Raja) is not a sanctioning authority, we will not consider it.”
At this, the S-G relented on filing the affidavit but made it clear that it should not be directly by the PM. “An officer will file the affidavit. We should not be seen as taking time,” the S-G insisted, adding, “I have confidence. I have consulted the records.”
While referring to Tuesday’s observations by the top court on the PM’s “silence for 16 months”, the S-G said, “We always take the observations of the court in a positive way.”
After taking on record the copy of the CAG report along with the final report of the director-general of telecom, the top court said the petition of the NGO Centre for PIL on the main 2G spectrum issue would be taken up for further hearing on November 22 while Dr Swamy’s plea on the issue of grant of sanction for prosecution of Mr Raja would be taken up on November 23.
Meanwhile, Dr Swamy was asked to file his rejoinder to the affidavit to be filed by the Centre on “behalf” of the PM by November 22 so that there can be a smooth hearing on his petition the next day.