Radia Tapes: Supreme Court criticises government for delay in inquiry

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sharply criticised the government for the delay in investigating the controversial Niira Radia tapes, saying the "long delay has made the matter infructuous".

"What is surprising is that these tapes were available for a long time to the superior officers. These are serious issues. We want to know whether these were shared with superior officers. If they were, action would have been taken. The long delay has made the matter infructuous," Justice GS Singhvi said. In the tapes, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia is heard lobbying on behalf of some companies with influential persons and decision-makers.

The court is hearing petitions filed by industrialist Ratan Tata and a non-government organisation.

While Tata has argued that any private conversation should not be placed in the public domain, saying he was willing to share the rest with the authorities, the NGO has sought all conversations, except those purely personal in nature, be made public to bring out the role corporate lobbies play in governance and decision-making.

The court, however, did not press the issue with additional solicitor general PP Malhotra as he was not prepared with the case, giving the government time until Wednesday to give its response.

The court instead sought to know the CBI's opinion on the transcripts of the 5,800 audio tapes, which contain conversations between corporate lobbyist Radia and some ministers and journalists. CBI counsel KK Venugopal said the conversations raised serious issues of government servants privy to important public information sharing it with private groups.