What is home secretary talking about, SC asks govt

The Supreme Court on Wednesday wanted to know whether there was any substance in the reported statement of Home Secretary G K Pillai who said that what has come into the public domain from the Niira Radia tapes in connection with 2G spectrum was merely the 'tip of the iceberg'.

"We don't know whether it is true or not or whether he has given an interview at all," a bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said, during the hearing of the petition seeking monitoring of the investigation into the case by the apex court.

"Do we assume that CBI has already transcribed all the tapes" the bench said, referring to the interviews of Pillai published in newspapers.

"According to the report, it is reported that it is the tip of the iceberg and lot many things will come out," the bench said.

The bench said the senior government officer in the report says that "only juicy conversations have come out. Other substances are still to come out".

"Pillai has made the statement or not," the bench asked and added "it has become fashion also that a very senior officer gives interviews, thinking it to be in public interest".

The CBI, during the earlier hearing, had told the bench that it has the taped conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others. It had said it has prepared the transcripts of only 3,000 conversations out of 5,8000.

When the bench was making such remarks, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said "somebody has to go into the veracity of these conversations".

At this point, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, which has submitted copies of the tapped conversations, said, "Nobody has doubted the veracity of the conversation".