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Government offers apex court to supervise spectrum probe
Tuesday November 30, 2010 07:53:14 PM ,
IANS
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New Delhi:
The central government Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it had
no objection to the court monitoring the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scandal
in whichever manner it wanted.
"(The) government has no objection to the court monitoring the
investigation as the government wants to establish its
credentials," Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the apex
court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly.
When Subramanium said that the government was not at cross purpose
with regards to the investigation, the court said this meant that
the "purpose of the investigation is to find truth and the
government is also interested in unearthing the truth. Thus, they
are not at cross purposes".
The court asked the solicitor general to seek instructions from
the government on the safe custody of the telephone intercepts of
the conversations of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia with media and
politicians.
Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Centre
for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), earlier said the tapes
should not be lost. He referred to the Mumbai's Adarsh housing
society scam case in which some important papers have gone
missing.
Even as Subramanium told the court that the government was open to
court monitoring the scandal probe, Bhushan said the supervision
of the investigation should be done by two-three people who were
"independent, competent and of impeccable integrity".
Appearing for the CBI, senior counsel K.K. Venugopal told the
court "we (CBI) will object to any outside supervision except for
the statutory supervision".
After the apex court expressed its reservations on the objectivity
of Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P.J. Thomas in supervising
the probe, Venugopal said the job of the supervision could be
entrusted to the vigilance commissioner.
Subramanium told the court that the grant of licences and second
generation spectrum to mobile companies in 2008 at 2001 prices was
a part of the government policy that envisaged "higher growth,
lowers tariff and increased service provider revenue".
The policy was reiterated by the Telephone Regulatory Authority of
India in 2003, 2005, and 2007 and even in 2010, he said.
This prompted the court to say: "This (to award 2G Spectrum and
licence at 2001 prices) did not emerge overnight."
Subramanium, without saying in so many words, made it clear that
he was not holding brief for former telecom minister Andimuthu
Raja. "Any action which may be in conformity with the policy and
law but is done for corrupt reasons is culpable," he said.
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