Centre gets notice on Radia tape leaks, asked to respond in 10 days

Taking up the writ petition of Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata, raising privacy issues in context to the Nira Radia tape leaks, the Supreme Court today issued notices to the home secretary, CBI, the income tax department and the finance ministry.

The bench of Justice G S Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly has asked the centre and the investigating agency to respond within 10 days to the petition. The next hearing is on December 13.

Though the two magazines, which had published the controversial recordings of the corporate lobbyist, had not been made parties by Tata, they were called in at the initiative of the judges.

The bench asked Tata counsel Harish Salve why the two magazines, Open and Outlook, have not been impleaded in the petition, to which Salve replied they could be impleaded.

Appearing for the various government departments, Attorney General G E Vahanvati accepted notices on their behalf.

Salve clarified that Tata did not want any injunction against the media. The bench, however, said, "Since we are examining the issue, we want to hear them, too."

Salve said Tata has not challenged the right of the concerned department to record the conversation for investigative purposes. “My concern is that the audio content of personal conversation should not be put in the public domain," Salve clarified. Conversation, which has no relevance for the purpose for which it was recorded must be put out of media's reach, he added.

Meanwhile, the tapes were deposited in the Supreme Court following the directions of the bench which is hearing the 2G Spectrum case involving former Telecom minister A Raja.