The Supreme Court on Monday asked Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati to produce in a sealed cover a copy of the complaint received against corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, which formed the basis for the Income-Tax Department to tap her telephonic conversations.A Bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said this to the A-G after perusing the Centre's counter-affidavit in the petition filed by industrialist Ratan Tata, alleging that the publication of...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said he was aware of the "nervousness in the corporate sector" over phone tapping and asked cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar to look into the matter and submit a report within a month. "I am aware of the nervousness in the corporate sector arising out of the powers conferred upon the government authorities to tap the phones for protecting national security and preventing tax evasion and money...

Since the last few years, Prashan Bhushan, senior lawyer, has fired up the Indian political scene through his missionary legal practice.In the legal fraternity he is a loner because he is, always, on the wrong side of the power set up in New Delhi. In fact, when one meets the slow and soft-speaker, he hardly looks like a lawyer who is capable of shaking-up the government and its cronies.But, his...

Recently an interesting article appeared in The New York Times on how after the completion of a social audit at Nagarkurnool in Andhra Pradesh, villagers punished a local official for swindling funds allocated to the central government's flagship project, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The irate villagers tied the official's hands and paraded him around the neighbouring villages. This is not a one-off incident; similar accounts have...

Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata's plea seeking stopping of further publication of his taped conversations with Corporate lobbyist Niira Radia is likely to be opposed in the Supreme Court by an NGO which wants all the recorded conversations to be put in public domain. "We would make a plea in the apex court on Monday for bringing it to public domain all the tapped conversations between Radia and others," advocate Prashant...