Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Wednesday demanded that prime minister Manmohan Singh should immediately respond to supreme court's observation on delay in taking a decision on the plea for sanction for prosecution of former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum allocation issue.

"The PM should immediately respond to what the supreme court has said on Raja issue," Advani told reporters in Patna before leaving for campaigning for last phase of Bihar assembly elections.

He said, "We are demanding a JPC probe into the issue in Parliament and the government should think on it. Corruption should be eliminated from the country," Advani said.

"I don't remember the SC raising a question like this in 60 years of my parliamentary career," Advani said.

The supreme court had yesterday asked some embarrassing questions about the lengthy delay on the part of the prime minister in taking a decision on a plea for sanction of prosecution of the former telecom minister in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation issue.

"Can the sanctioning authority (prime minister in this case) sit on the complaint," a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly had asked during a hearing on a petition filed by Janata Party president and former law minister Subramaniam Swamy, who had sought sanction for prosecution of Raja.

Advani said during the last two sessions of Parliament, "price rise and inflation were one of the main issues...and the way the opposition raised it, the government was forced to debate on it".

He said corruption has now become an important issue as three major scams had surfaced.

PM should explain delay in spectrum scam probe: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) on Wednesday asked prime minister Manmohan Singh to explain why a probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam was delayed despite repeated demands by it since 2008.

"The prime minister should explain in Parliament how this murky affair was allowed to go on for so long," the party Politburo said in a statement, which came a day after the supreme court sought clarification from the prime minister on the 11-month delay in sanctioning prosecution of telecom minister A Raja who has since quit.

"It should be further asked why the prime minister refused to order a probe on the telecom scam for a longer period despite repeated requests", it said, pointing out that CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had written to the prime minister in November 2008 and had sought an enquiry.

Maintaining that corporate crime cannot be condoned "as the UPA government is prone to do so", the party demanded that all companies which "benefited illegally" should be asked to pay up the full amount as per the market value of the spectrum allocation.

"Further, those companies who have got the licenses and spectrum allocation illegally and by violation of the norms, their licenses should be cancelled," the CPI(M) said.

Describing the scam which caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer as the "biggest corruption case", it said not only should Raja and other guilty officials be prosecuted, but immediate steps be taken to "undo the damage and recover the lost revenue".