NEW DELHI, Dec 2 � Former Telecom minister A Raja faced further embarrasment today in the Supreme Court which slammed him for showing �disrespect� to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and for �overruling� his advice to defer the allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days, reports PTI
For the second consecutive day, Raja came in the line of fire with the court noting that he had not paid heed to the Prime Minister�s letter which advised him to wait for some days before taking action on the allocation of spectrum.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja�s letter to the PM wherein words like �unfair, discriminatory, capricious and arbitrary� were used.
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.
Resuming hearing on the petition by NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL, on the spectrum scam, the court raised questions on Raja ignoring the Law ministry�s advice seeking opinion of the AG as �out of context�.
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 (EGOM) for seeking the opinion of the law officers like the Attorney General and Solicitor General.
�Raja first received opinion of the Law Ministry which he overruled by saying it was out of context, then he received a letter of PM on the same day asking him to wait and let me (PM) know further action you (Raja) take. That is also ignored,� the court said.
�The letter of Law ministry for taking 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, however, 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 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.
