Respect the PM and mind your attitude: SC tells Raja

The Supreme Court on Thursday came down heavily on former telecom minister A Raja for 'bypassing' and even 'overruling' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advice to defer the allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days.

The apex court also took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja's letter to the prime minister, saying it amounted to showing 'disrespect' to the highest authority in the country.

The bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said Raja had not paid heed to the prime minister's letter, which urged him to wait for some days before taking any action on the allocation of spectrum.

Resuming hearing on the petition by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, on the spectrum scam, the court raised questions about Raja ignoring the law ministry's advice.

The court made the remarks after noting that the law minister has given an opinion that the matter be referred to the Empowered Group of Ministers for seeking the opinion of law officers like the attorney general and solicitor general.

"Raja first received the opinion of the law ministry, which he overruled by saying it was out of context, then he received a letter of the PM on the same day, asking him to wait and let me (PM) know the further action you (Raja) take. That was also ignored," the court said.

"The letter of the law ministry for taking the opinion of AG was ignored. The PM's letter was ignored. Is this the way the government functions," the court asked.

Senior advocate T R Andhyarujina, appearing for Raja, contended that the former telecom minister never ignored the opinion of the law ministry or the advice of the prime minister.

The bench shot back, "The question is what led him to say that the law ministry's opinion was out of context."

"Nothing could have happened if you would have waited for two-three days after receiving the letter from the prime minister," the bench snapped.

"First, Raja is saying that the opinion of the law ministry is out of context and then not considering the letter of the prime minister," the bench said.

Andhyarujina, who faced a volley of questions, tried to impress upon the bench that Raja showed no disrespect to the prime minister, who, he said, was entitled to know everything about the allocation of spectrum.

"There was no question of showing any disrespect to the prime minister. The prime minister is entitled to know everything," the senior advocate said.

"Prima facie, he has shown disrespect," the bench observed.

The apex court said Raja should have written back to the law minister when the latter had expressed certain reservations and there was no reason why he should have written a letter to the prime minister.

"It is an inter-departmental correspondence. The PM has no connection," the bench observed.

The apex court also took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja's letter wherein words like "unfair, discriminatory, capricious and arbitrary" were used in the letter written to the PM.

In a sarcastic manner, it said, "Look at the command of his language".

"When you address a letter to the highest executive, the tenor of the language should be temperate. Here, it is a question of attitude," the bench said, also faulting Raja's attitude.