Law Minister Moily asks Attorney General to represent Manmohan Singh in apex court

NEW DELHI - Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said that the government authorised Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati to appear for Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in the Supreme Court over 2G spectrum case was to ensure that he was “properly represented”.

“There is no change in government representation…the Solicitor General (Gopal Subramanium) will represent the Department of Telecommunications while (Additional Solicitor General) Haren Raval will represent the CBI as they are separate entities,” Moily told reporters here.

Moily said since the Solicitor General was already representing the DoT, Vahanvati has been authorised to represent the Prime Minister.

On Thursday, Moily had dismissed suggestions that his ministry failed to properly present the government’s side in the 2G spectrum case.

“Nothing has gone wrong in the court… I know the Supreme Court more than you do,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday had asked for an affidavit to be filed by Saturday on behalf of the Prime Minister, to explain why he took close to a year to respond to a request for the prosecution of former Telecom Minister A Raja over the 2G scam.

Delivering the order, the court said, “It’s an extremely serious matter, we must know what has been kept back.”

The apex court has asked for the details of communication between the PMO and Janata Party President and former Law Minister Subramaniam Swamy, who had sought sanction for the prosecution of Raja.

Earlier on Tuesday, the apex court had asked the Government to explain why the Prime Minister took eleven months to take a decision on sanctioning of prosecution of Raja in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation issue.

Raja was forced to resign Sunday night under considerable pressure from the Congress, which continues to be attacked in Parliament by the Opposition on corruption charges.(ANI)