The Supreme Court has asked the centre to file an affidavit on Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s silence on Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy’s petition seeking sanction to prosecute former minister for communications A. Raja.
The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file the affidavit by 20 November and has fixed the hearing on 23 November. The apex court further said that showing the files was inadequate and the reasons for the delay need to be highlighted. The Supreme Court wants the affidavit to be filed on behalf of the Prime Minister by a responsible officer explaining the 11 month long inaction and silence.
The court had asked the government to explain within two days why the “sanctioning authority” – in this case, the Prime Minister had remained silent for 11 months over a request seeking sanction for the prosecution of A Raja in the 2G case.
A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly hearing the 2G spectrum case asked solicitor general, Gopal Subramaniam to examine relevant files before giving his response as to why it took the government a month short of a year to tell Swamy that prosecution would be “premature” at this stage.
