On Tata’s plea, apex court sends notice to government

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday issued a notice to the central government on a petition of Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group of companies, seeking to restrain the unauthorised publication of telephone intercepts of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia in the 2G spectrum allocation scandal.

The notice has been issued to the home ministry, the finance ministry, the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The court also issued notice to Outlook and Open magazines which have published parts of transcripts of the taped conversations that form evidence in the 2G spectrum scandal that is assessed to have had cost the state exchequer thousands of crores of rupees.

All the six respondents have been given 10 days’ time to file their reply. The next hearing is slated for Dec 13.

Senior Counsel Harish Salve appearing for Tata said that the way the taped conversations were being published violated his right to privacy.