Despite protests by some Congress members on the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G spectrum scam, its chief P.C. Chacko has decided to go ahead with calling Attorney-General Goolam Vahanvati as the next witness.
Soon after Mr. Chacko announced the decision, a section of Congress members is learnt to have protested against calling the top law officer of the country as a witness.
They claimed that a lawyer could not be asked to appear before a committee on the advice he had given to the government for, it was against the principles of governance.
When contacted, Mr. Chacko said he had to go by the general sense of the committee.
“Some members may have objections... We are calling the AG on October 3. On that day we will decide whether there is need to call more witnesses,” he told PTI.
This will be the first time that the AG will appear before the JPC to give oral evidence.
Mr. Vahanvati was called before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee in April 2011 when it was examining the CAG report on 2G spectrum allocation. But following acrimonious scenes between the Congress and the BJP members that day, he could not appear before the panel.
Recently, the CBI asked Mr. Vahanvati about the legal opinion given to the Telecom Ministry as Solicitor-General during UPA I when the spectrum process had begun.
The AG maintained that the CBI had approached him only for some clarifications.
