What was the motive behind tapping Radia's phone, Tata asks govt

'The way govt has conducted itself is questionable. When they were not interested in probe then why did it tap the conversation'

Former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata today questioned in the Supreme Court government's motive in tapping telephonic conversations of Niira Radia with top politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen including him and suggested it might have been done for political purposes.

Appearing before a bench headed by Justice G M Singhvi, Tata's counsel Harish Salve submitted that every public figure including him has a reasonable expectation of privacy and leakage of his conversation is violation of his fundamental right to privacy.

"The way government has conducted itself is questionable. I do not have doubts in my mind. When they were not interested in probe then why did it tap the conversation.

"You(govt) tapped 5,000 hours of conversations and sat on it. You did it for some other purposes. Lots of explosive political matters are in it," he said.

He questioned why the government did not take any action on the basis of tapped conversation which was allegedly done as part of surveillance of Radia's phone on a complaint to the Finance Minister.

"A feeling is inescapable that there were other reasons for tapping the phone but I have no evidence to prove that. It was done in the darkness of night," he said.

"It is violation of fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution. No government can say that it is powerless to protect rights of the people. You have to take action against the person for violation of rights and officials secret Act," he said.