Why was Soli quiet during Ayodhya trial, Gujarat riots: Sibal

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) Union Minister Kapil Sibal today defended his comments in favour of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Sanjay Dutt, and said they did not signal to a ''celebrity justice delivery system'' as termed by former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee, nor were they a contempt of court.

''Though I have great respect for Sorabjee as an individual, I am intrigued by his remarks.... I only said that the Congress should stand by Dutt's family in this time of stress and trouble as late Sunil Dutt (Sanjay's father) had always adhered to the Party's ideology of national integration and secularism.... I stand by my comments.... I did not speak on the merits of the case,'' Mr Sibal told a press conference at his residence here.

''Jiske saath hamein hamdardi hai, hum uske saath kade honge (We will support anybody with whom we have sympathy),'' said Mr Sibal, who as a lawyer got Sanjay bail the first time the actor was arrested in the case.

The minister said support for actor Sanjay in the media did not make his case strong or weak. It was for the court to decide.

''People will not stop giving their opinions. It is not a contempt of court,'' he added.

Mr Sorabjee, in an interview to a television channel yesterday, had said that no signal of any ''celebrity justice delivery system'' should go because of actor's status and the support he was getting from Congress leaders Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Kapil Sibal.

In a counter-attack, Mr Sibal asked why Mr Sorabjee as the Attorney General, as protector of the Constitution, did not speak during the Ayodhya trial when the then Law Minister publicly said that his BJP colleagues in the Cabinet, L K Advani and M M Joshi, were not guily of the charges they were facing.

''Did Mr Sorbajee not consider Advani and Joshi as celebrities,'' he said.

''And where was his moral streak and sense of righteousness when the Gujarat riots took place. What happened when Zahira Sheikh's case was being argued,'' he asked.

Mr Sibal said Mr Sorabjee also kept silent when the Nanavati Commission was set up to look into the Gujarat riots.

''I was distraught individually when the Nanavati Commission was set up because I know that offences committed in broad daylight cannot be inquired by a Commission whose only purpose is to delay prosecution so that evidence is lost. Why did Mr Sorabjee not speak against it. Did the Attorney General not hear his inner voice then,'' he said.

''And when the petrol pump scam was unearthed (during BJP's rule) with the then Law Minister publicly giving clean chit to the ministers involved in the scam, why did Mr Sorabjee as the protector of the Constitution not say that the matter was being investigated,'' Mr Sibal asked.

''People have given their opinion in the media about several cases in the past. Why did Mr Sorabjee not speak then.'' UNI