SC lifts ban on publishing Amar Singh's tapes

The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted its gag order on the media, restraining it from broadcasting and publishing contents of the taped conversations of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh with top politicians and Bollywood stars.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly dismissed Singh's petition and vacated its interim order passed on February 27, 2006 restraining the media from making contents of the conversation public.

The bench also said that there has been suppression of facts by the politician before the court in the case.

The court, however, said the politician may file a case against Reliance Infocomm for illegally tapping his phone.

Justice A K Ganguly, who wrote the judgment for the bench which also included Justice G S Singhvi, said that no case can be made out against the Centre and its authorities as they were not involved in tapping Singh's telephone.

The bench had reserved its verdict on Singh's petition on March 29 after hearing him and an NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, which has opposed his plea and had sought a direction for making public all his tapped conversations.

The apex court had on February 27, 2006, restrained the electronic and the print media from broadcasting and publishing the contents of the tapped conversations of all, including those of Singh.

Singh, who was the Samajwadi Party general secretary at the time when his telephones were tapped, had earlier accused the Congress and private telecom operator Reliance Infocomm of being behind the tapping. He had later withdrawn his allegations against the Congress.

Besides the two ministries -- Telecom and Home – Singh had also included the Delhi government and the Delhi police in his petition.

He had pleaded that his phones were intercepted in violation of the guidelines of the apex court and the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and Rules.

On the last hearing, the court had said, "We don't have to vacate the injunction as there is nothing surviving in your petition since it was done on forged documents."

The court had earlier observed that Singh's privacy has been violated but he should file a case against the telecom operator.
"Your incursion of privacy is established but your cure lies against Reliance which had intercepted your calls. You have other remedy," the bench had said.

The court had made the remarks when Singh pleaded that his privacy would be further violated after the gag order is removed.

The bench had said the aggrieved leader can seek an alternative remedy against telecom operator Reliance Infocomm which had allowed tapping on the forged documents in 2005.

Taking note that the letter for interception was forged and there was no involvement of government agencies, the bench had said Singh could file a lawsuit against the private company.