New Delhi:
In a crucial day for Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict on whether his role should be probed in the 2G spectrum scam case. A two-judge bench of the court is likely to decide on the petition filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy seeking an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Mr Chidambaram.
The judgement also assumes significance in that it cannot be delayed further given the fact that one of the judges, Justice A K Ganguly, is due to retire today.
The court will also decide on whether 122 licenses issued during the tenure of A Raja as Telecom Minister should be cancelled. Mr Raja is currently in jail and is alleged to have masterminded the scam wherein valuable spectrum was sold at throwaway prices to companies that he allegedly favoured.
In the Supreme Court, Subramanian Swamy has contended that Mr Chidambaram deserves to be questioned by the CBI for failing to reign in Mr Raja. The basis of Mr Swamy's petition lies in a note from the Finance Ministry that finds that Mr Chidambaram, as Finance Minister in 2008 when the scam unfolded, did not act rigorously enough to ensure that the spectrum was sold at fair prices.
The CBI has, in the past, objected to this, stating that there is nothing to suggest that Mr Chidambaram could have acted differently, and that it is incorrect to single out a minister as culpable for Mr Raja's actions.
The controversial note - sent in March to the Prime Minister's Office - had turned into a searing controversy, mainly because notings establish that it was "seen by" the present Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee - suggesting that he endorsed its content.
The excavation of that document by a Right to Information activist allowed the Opposition to demand with more surety the resignation of Mr Chidambaram. A week after the document was presented in the Supreme Court in September last year, Pranab Mukherjee clarified that it was prepared with inputs from different ministries, and that he did not agree with all of its inferences.
The government has so far backed Mr Chidambaram vociferously, with the Prime Minister stating that the Home Minister enjoys his "complete confidence." Mr Mukherjee has described Mr Chidambaram as "a pillar of strength" to the government in what's being seen as an attempt to assuage his upset colleague. Mr Chidambaram reportedly had told the PM that the note against him is the result of an orchestrated campaign within the government against him.
Mr Swamy had urged the Supreme Court to monitor the investigation into the 2G scam, which is being conducted by the CBI. Since November 2010, the inquiry has cost a couple of Union ministers their jobs, and lodged several executives at some of India's biggest telecom companies in prison.