SC slams govt, RCom over Amar phone tapping

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) The Supreme Court todayslammed the Government for not cancelling the licence ofReliance Infocomm for illegally tapping the telephone ofpolitician Amar Singh on the basis of forged orders.

"Why didn''t you cancel the licence of the serviceprovider. It''s gross negligence. Either service provider wasdoing deliberately or because of its incompetence on the basisof a letter full of errors.

"There were gross errors in the letter on which theinterception was done. Government should have cancelled thelicence of the service provider per se," a bench comprisingJustices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.

Reliance Infocomm company has been with the groupheaded by Anil Ambani after the split between the Ambanibrothers in July, 2005.

"That was in 2005, now it is 2011 and serviceprovider has been allowed to continue with its business. Thegovernment has not taken any action so far. It is a seriousmatter and why action has not been taken against the serviceprovider," the bench said.

The remarks of the bench came as the Reliance Infocommhad intercepted Singh''s telephone between October 22 andDecember 21, 2005 on the basis of two letters of the"competent authority" which had several grammatical errorsand subsequently it was found that the signatures of officerswere forged.

"The letters were coming from the senior policeofficer and Home Secretary, the senior IAS officer. The wholecontent should have been examined for public safety. It wassuch a serious matter. This type of order has been acted uponby the service provider. The citizen of this country has nosafety. They are subjected to interception by unscrupulousservice provider," the bench said. (More) PTI AAC RKS