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.

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