The Supreme Court on Friday took a serious view of the Communications Minister Kapil Sibal's statement criticising the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General in the ‘2G spectrum scam.'
Describing his statement as “unfortunate,” the court asked him to “behave with some sense of responsibility.”
Issuing notice to the Centre on a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking cancellation of the spectrum licences already issued, a Bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly in a brief order said: “In our opinion, the CBI, which is conducting the investigation into what has been termed ‘2G scam,' is expected to carry on with the investigation without being influenced by any statement made by anybody in the press or otherwise.”
Detailed order
Earlier Dr. Swamy said: “The court has given a detailed order taking into account the CAG's report that had made a prima facie case of wrongdoing. But Mr. Sibal is publicly ridiculing the CAG's findings and this might obstruct the investigation.”
Seeking directions for a free and fair investigation, Dr. Swamy submitted that the “The CBI is after all under the Government of India.”
Justice Singhvi told Dr. Swamy: “We take it that the CBI should not be influenced by anyone. The investigations are being carried on under this court's supervision and any observation from anyone including the Minister should not influence the course of investigation.”
Justice Ganguly said: “This [Mr. Sibal's statement] is unfortunate. The Minister is supposed to behave with some sense of responsibility.”
The Bench issued notice to the Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the 11 telecom companies which were granted licences and sought their response by February 1.
Proper application
When Dr. Swamy said the process of compounding the illegalities of the licensees by levy of penalty had begun, the court asked him to file a proper application seeking a direction to restrain the Department of Telecommunication from accepting the penalty from the companies, which had not complied with the conditionalities of the licence.
Dr. Swamy, whose prayer in the main petition was for a direction for fresh auction, wanted the court to direct that all such and further adjudication by the government be not carried out except under the supervision or orders of the court.
