New Delhi, June 28
With deep political divisions continuing to block the adoption of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) 2G Spectrum scam report, panel Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi today decided to refer the matter to constitutional and legal experts for opinion.

The decision came after a stormy committee meeting, where the Congress members, except Sandeep Dikshit (who warned members against the precedent of un-adopted reports such as 2G being sent to the Speaker), questioned the relevance of the PAC taking up a report that Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had returned on grounds that it had not been “read and adopted”.

Led by Jayanti Natarajan, who said she had “no faith in Joshi in the matter of 2G Spectrum though she personally respected him” and MPs Jagdambika Pal and Sanjay Nirupam, who asked why PAC should probe a matter already under the purview of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), the Congress brigade again sought to bury the draft report that questioned the role of the PMO and top ministers in the case.

The Congress maintained the PAC report was non-existent - a phrase JPC chief PC Chacko often uses to describe the said report.

The PAC Chairman, however, said he heard everyone and decided to seek legal and constitutional opinion on two issues - the status of the report and the validity of the Speaker’s act of returning it when it had “not been allowed to be read and adopted though it was valid”.

“How can they say the report is non-existent? It was drafted by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, vetted by the CAG, circulated to members, sought to be discussed, but was not allowed to be discussed. Had the protesting members wanted to adopt it, they could have debated its clauses and adopted them by consensus after seeking the desired amendments because in PAC there’s no provision of dissent or rejection.

A report has to be adopted by consensus after making alterations. But that was not done though the members adopted the other five draft reports of the previous PAC, listed as part of today’s agenda,” Joshi said after the meeting. He would come back to the committee with the legal opinion, he added.

The Tribune has, meanwhile, learnt that DMK member in the committee today wanted jailed former telecom minister A Raja examined and Congress’ Saifuddin Soz accused Joshi of not calling former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie and former Law Secretary TK Vishwanathan (now the Secretary-General, Lok Sabha) for deposition. “We can call the witnesses if the committee is ready to discuss the report,” Joshi said.