2G scam: Supreme Court examines Manmohan Singh’s affidavit
By ANITuesday, November 23, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court on Tuesday examined the affidavit filed on behalf of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, that rejects charges of inaction on the part of the PMO in the 2G spectrum scam.
Appearing on behalf of the Prime Minister, Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the apex court that Janata Party President and former Law Minister, Subramanian Swamy’s petition asking the Prime Minister for sanction was misconceived in law.
Vahanvati argued that the sanction to file a complaint against former Telecom Minister A Raja was not required as that question arises only when the court wants to take cognizance of the offence.
“The question of granting sanction does not arise, as there was no complaint. Sanction is to be granted only when a court takes cognizance of an offence and wants to initiate proceedings against an accused,” he added.
On Monday, Swamy stuck to his stand that there was a delay on the part of the PMO in replying to his complaint over the prosecution of Raja. But he shifted the blame on law officials and bureaucrats advising the Prime Minister.
” There was no malafide on the part of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was badly advised by law officers, the Law Ministry and bureaucrats,” he added.
Earlier, 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 last Sunday under considerable pressure from the Congress, which continues to be attacked in Parliament by the Opposition on corruption charges.
The 2G spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has stated in a damning report.
The report further states that former Telecom Minister A. Raja had no apparent logical or valid reasons to ignore the advice of the Law and Finance Ministries while allocating telecom spectrum to several firms in 2007-08. (ANI)
