Raja takes SC hit for disrespecting PM

Lashing out at the former minister for the second successive day, Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly pointed out that Raja had not paid heed to the Prime Minister’s letter which advised him to wait for some days before taking action on the allocation of spectrum.

Taking strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja’s letter to the Prime Minister in which words such as “unfair, discriminatory, capricious and arbitrary” were in use, the judges made a mocking comment: “look at the command of his language.”

The Centre had also distanced itself from the DMK minister. Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Court that both the Prime Minister and Law Minister Veerappa Moily had reservations over the allocation process, reiterating that Raja should have given more importance to the PM’s reservation.

“When you address a letter to the highest executive, the tenor of the language should be temperate. Here, it is a question of attitude,” the Bench said on Raja’s letter to the Prime Minister.

Resuming hearing on the petition by the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) on the spectrum scam, the court raised questions over Raja’s response to the Law ministry’s advice to seek the opinion of the AG as “out of context”.

The court made the remarks after noting that the Law Minister had given an opinion that the matter be referred to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) for seeking the opinion of the law officers like the Attorney General and Solicitor General.

“Raja first received opinion of the Law Ministry which he overruled by saying it was out of context, then he received a letter of PM on the same day asking him to wait and let me (PM) know further action you (Raja) take. That is also ignored,” the court said.

“The letter of Law ministry for taking opinion of AG was ignored. The PM’s letter was ignored. Is this the way the government functions? “ the court asked.
Senior advocate T R Andhyarujina, appearing for Raja, however, contended that the former telecom minister never ignored the opinion of the Law ministry or the advice of the Prime Minister.

Andhyarujina’s attempts to impress the bench that the Prime Minister was entitled to know everything about the allocation failed to convince the Bench.  “Prima facie, he has shown disrespect,” it observed.

On Wednesday, the court had grilled Raja saying it was improper on his part to bypass the Prime Minister’s reservations, observing, “There is more than what meets the eye”.