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Produce complaint against Radia, apex court tells govt
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 13
The Supreme Court today asked the government to submit a copy of the complaint against corporate lobbyist Niira Radia which had alleged that she was “an agent of foreign intelligence agencies”. The government had ordered tapping of her telephone conversations following a complaint received by the Finance Minister.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly passed an order seeking the complaint in a sealed cover. The Centre had talked about the complaint in an affidavit filed on December 10 in response to Tata Group chairman Ratan N Tata’s petition objecting to the leakage of Radia’s conversations to the media and seeking an inquiry. The conversations were with politicians, industrialists and journalists. Radia runs a public relations company that had been engaged by Tata and other industrial houses.

Quoting the complaint, the Centre had said Radia had “within a short span of nine years built up a business empire worth Rs 300 crore, that she was an agent of foreign intelligence agencies and that she was indulging in anti-national activities”. The government, however, had not divulged the source of the complaint. It also had not given any other details of the complaint. At the same time, the Bench advised the media to stay away from damaging the reputation of any individual till the case was disposed of as the right to dignity far outweighed other causes.

Arguing for Tata, senior counsel Harish Salve said it was unfortunate that the media continued to carry details of the leaked conversations unnecessarily damaging individuals’ reputation. In such conversations, if A had told B that C was corrupt, how the media could publish it tarnishing the image of C merely on the basis of the allegation, he reasoned.

Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for magazine “Open” that has been allowed to be an intervener in the case for carrying part of the conversations, contended that Tata should file a defamation case against the media houses concerned instead of seeking relief under Article 32 of the Constitution.