JOIN USTata Group chief Ratan Tata Thursday urged the Supreme Court to direct the central government to give him the confidential report on the leaked taped conversations of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
Tata asked for the report of the probe by the director general of income tax so that he could implead the telecom service providers as parties in the case. The confidential report being sought by Tata is on the investigation by the director general of income tax into the leakage of the taped telephone conversations of Radia.
On a plea by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Tata, the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya asked additional solicitor general Harin Raval if he had any reservation on sharing the confidential report with the petitioner.
Raval told the court that if Tata filed an application on this, the central government in its response would tell the court the portions of the report on which it would claim privilege and the portions of the report that could be made available to Tata.
The court adjourned the hearing for two weeks to enable the industrialist to file an application. The court was hearing a plea of Tata for enforcing his right to privacy by restraining unauthorised publication of the transcripts of the intercepted telephone conversations of Radia. Tata contended that the publication of the intercepts violated his right to privacy.
The income tax department after approval from the union home secretary taped 5,851 telephonic conversations that Radia had with different people during the course of the grant of 2G licences and allocation of spectrum. Tata moved the apex court in November 2010.
The income tax department's report on Radia tapes was given to the apex court Tuesday in a sealed cover. It is believed to have indicated that the leakage was not done by any of the government agencies who had access to these tapes.
The report is believed to have pointed the needle of suspicion to the service providers as they too were involved in the tapping of phones. The government said there were eight to 10 agencies, including service providers, which were involved in the tapping of Radia's telephonic conversations.
While purusing the probe report Tuesday, the court said it was "quite possible that someone else has done it".
Tata in his petition said he was not questioning the right of the government to intercept telephone calls but the recorded conversations could be used only for investigations and not for publications in media.
Radia's phones were put under surveillance after the home ministry received an anonymous letter alleging her foreign connection and her spectacular rise in a short span of few years. Following the anonymous letter, the income tax department was asked to investigate the matter.