The CPI(M) today said that besides the Congress, the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government was responsible for "inaction" in taking the Bofors pay-off case to its logical conclusion.

"The NDA government too had the opportunity to take the investigation into the Bofors case to its logical conclusion. Why didn't they use that option?" senior party leader Sitaram Yechury said here.

Blaming both the BJP and Congress for the closure of the case, he said the recent Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order in the Bofors case once again proved that middlemen existed and commissions were paid in the gun deal.

"We have been consistently maintaining for the past 20 years that there have been middlemen and commissions have been paid to them," Yechury said.

His comments came as the CBI today contended before a Delhi court that the tribunal's order was "wholly irrelevant and reliance on it is totally misconceived."

The agency also said there was no change in government's stand on withdrawing the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the wake of the tribunal order.

Replying to a question on the corruption charges against former Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and his son-in-law, Yechury said the allegations should be "impartially enquired into as they are very serious charges."