Court pulls up government in Amar Singh tapping case

The Supreme Court Wednesday pulled up the central government and other contenders in the Amar Singh wire tapping case for filing a “very casual and vague” affidavit and asked them to file a fresh one.

The apex court bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said casual and vague affidavits have been filed by all on such a serious issue.

“It is a very serious issue and all the affidavits have been filed in a very casual manner,” the court said.

The court asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian to file the status report on the case relating to the criminal conspiracy before going to the trial court.

Appearing for the petitioner Amar Singh, senior counsel Harish Salve said that though Delhi Police has washed off its hands by saying that the letter on which his client’s phone was tapped were forged, right to privacy had been breached and could not be overlooked.

He said that the central government was under constitutional mandate to protect his client’s right to privacy. He said telecom operators were working under its (centre) license.

The case relates to Amar Singh’s wire tapping, which created furore in the political circle. Initially, Singh had alleged that he was the target of vendetta by his political adversaries.

Amar Singh is a former Samajwadi Party leader and member of Rajya Sabha.