Make public Vahanvati's advice to Raja: CIC

Information sought by S C Agrawal under the transparency law was earlier refused by the department of legal affairs

PTI | November 14, 2011



Central information commission on Monday directed the telecom ministry to make public advice tendered by the then solicitor general Goolam E Vahanvati to A Raja, who was the telecom minister, on 2G spectrum issues in 2007.

The information sought by S C Agrawal under the transparency law was refused by the department of legal affairs citing exemption clause of "fiduciary relationship" under the right to information act.

During the hearing, the department cited a previous order and claimed that since the information was given to telecom department, they will be in the best position to disclose the advise given by Vahanvati.

Agreeing with the view, information commissioner Sushma Singh directed the law ministry to transfer the application to telecom department and also directed the latter to make public the advice once the application is received by them.

Raja had allegedly cited the discussion with Vahanvati to press his point before the prime minister to go ahead with spectrum allocation as against the advice of the prime minister asking him to wait for some days before taking any action on the issue.

Raja, on December 26, 2007, had written to the prime minister saying, "I have already consulted the external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and solicitor general of India G E Vahanvati and they have advised me that as a preemptive and proactive measure, I can go ahead with the allocation of 2G spectrum space immediately."

Raja, who has been arrested by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum scam, had written the letter in response to prime minister's communique to him asking him to wait for some days before taking any action on spectrum allocation.

Comments

 

Other News

Wired for good: Building sustainable cities with AI

The First Industrial Revolution in the 18th-19th centuries ushered in a paradigm shift in how cities were imagined. Fueled by railways, factories and grids, and obsessed with speed and scale, it was an ode to efficiency, which spurred unprecedented economic growth. Now, as the Fourth Industrial Revolutio

How social media is reshaping elections

Since Brazil’s return to direct presidential elections in 1985, no candidate who finished second in the first round of polling had ever won the presidency. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, now 81, has just done it. What explains the comeback, and what changed in Brazilian politics to make it possi

Cabinet approves Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief

The union cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2026 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rates of 6

Cyclone Arnab strikes Andhra as warming oceans amplify storm risks

Cyclone Arnab made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125–135 kmph and gusts reaching 150 kmph. Its rapid intensification has raised concerns about how warmer oceans, global warmin

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter