2G scam: Supreme Court reserves verdict on Swamy's plea to prosecute Raja

New Delhi, Nov 24 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a plea seeking a direction to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for grant of sanction to prosecute former Telecom Minister A Raja in the 2G Spectrum case.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly reserved the verdict after concluding the hearing on the petition filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy.

The bench asked Attorney General G E Vahanvati to place before it the number of matters relating to the sanction pending before the competent authority in various government departments in one week.

Vahanvati said he would check from various departments and inform the court.n Tuesday, Vahanvati argued that the sanction to file a complaint against Raja was not required as that question arises only when the court wants to take cognizance of the offence.

"The question of granting sanction does not arise, as there was no complaint. Sanction is to be granted only when a court takes cognizance of an offence and wants to initiate proceedings against an accused," he added.

On Monday, Swamy stuck to his stand that there was a delay on the part of the PMO in replying to his complaint over the prosecution of Raja. But he shifted the blame on law officials and bureaucrats advising the Prime Minister.

" There was no malafide on the part of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was badly advised by law officers, the Law Ministry and bureaucrats," he added.

Earlier, the apex court had asked the Government to explain why the Prime Minister took eleven months to take a decision on sanctioning of prosecution of Raja in the scam.

Raja was forced to resign last Sunday under considerable pressure from the Congress, which continues to be attacked in Parliament by the Opposition on corruption charges. The 2G spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has stated in a damning report. (ANI)