Government seeks gag order on Swamy for speaking on 2G
January 21st, 2012 - 12:02 am ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) The government has moved the Supreme Court for an appropriate order against Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy for publicly speaking on 2G spectrum matter, which is before both the apex court and a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
The government, in its application, annexed the newspaper extracts which have verbatim quoted Swamy making defamatory allegations against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister P. Chidambram, and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M.Karunanidhi in the context of 2G scam.
The affidavit was filed by Sita Ram Meena, a director in the communication and IT ministry.
Noting that Swamy made defamatory allegations when the apex court and the special CBI court are seized of the 2G matter, the application said the sole object of the said speech was to “malign and lower the image and prestige of public servants holding important offices in the union government and in parliament”.
The court was told this in the course of the hearing of an application by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) that allged that union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid was interfering in the 2G trial by making statements giving clean chit to the companies facing prosecution.
CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan drew the attention of the court to “how important facts were being omitted and the minister was giving unsolicited opinion”. In this context, he referred to the CBI investigation of Loop Essar and Sistema Shyam Telecom.
Contesting the claim by Bhushan, senior counsel K.K.Venugopal gave three reports in a sealed cover by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate on their investigations and said that court could go into them and see the “extent of investigation that has been made in each of these cases”.
Given the paucity of time, the court adjourned the hearing and said the matter would be listed for the hearing next week. The date for the hearing would be given on Monday or Tuesday.
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Tags: apex court, cbi court, central bureau of investigation, clean chit, congress chief, enforcement directorate, gag order, home minister, justice minister, khurshid, party president, public interest litigation, public servants, senior counsel, shyam telecom, sole object, sonia gandhi, swamy, union government, venugopal