AG replaces SG to ensure PM is properly represented: Moily

NEW DELHI: Government on Friday said it authorised Attorney General G E Vahanvati to appear for the Prime Minister in the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case was to ensure that he was "properly represented".

"There is no change in government representation...the Solicitor General (Gopal Subramanium) will represent the Department of Telecommunications while (Additional Solicitor General) Haren Raval will represent the CBI as they are separate entities," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here.

He said the Prime Minister was not given notice in the case earlier.

"Now (with the SC asking government to file an affidavit on PMO's correspondence with Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy) it is a different case. Since the Solicitor General was present, he represented (the PM). Now we are making a pucca case," he explained.

Moily said since the SG was already representing the DoT, Vahanvati has been authorised to represent the Prime Minister.

To suggestions that government's asking the AG to step in proved inefficiency on part of the SG, he said Gopal Subramanium was an "important person and brilliant lawyer... you must not read between that."

Government on Friday replaced the Solicitor General with the Attorney General to represent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case in the wake of stinging observations from the bench.

The Supreme Court had yesterday asked the Prime Minister to file by Saturday an affidavit on "alleged inaction" in responding to a plea seeking sanction to prosecute former Telecom minister A Raja in the spectrum case, calling the matter "extremely serious."