CAG report: Swamy plans contempt action against Sibal

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, who had sought sanction to prosecute former telecom minisster A Raja for mismanaging the award of 2G licences, said on Monday he would move the Supreme Court seeking contempt of court action against telecom minister Kapil Sibal for stating that the Comptroller and Auditor General's report of a Rs1.76 lakh crore loss to the exchequer due to arbitrary 2G spectrum allocation was erroneous.

Swamy, who has filed a petition seeking cancellation of licences issued for 2G spectrum during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja, told reporters that within a day or two he will file an application in this regard. "We are moving an application seeking contempt action against the minister," he said.

His decision to file the application for contempt came after the Supreme Court refused to be drawn into the controversy on the statement of Sibal disputing the CAG's figure of Rs1.76 lakh crore as presumptive loss to the exchequer.

"We cannot take cognisance of that as it is not part of our record here," a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said, adding that they could not take cognisance of newspaper reports, when their attention was drawn to the fact that Sibal has made a comment that the CAG figure was incorrect and there was no loss to the exchequer in the allocation of spectrum.

On its part, the CAG on Monday said it stood by its report. ''CAG stands by its report on 2G spectrum 100 per cent,'' a spokesperson told reporters in New Delhi.

The Congress meanwhile continued to back Sibal. oday even the Congress party came around to firmly back Sibal's controversial position. Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said, ''The CAG only mentions a presumptive or notional loss. The report also leaves the option of choosing an exact figure to interpretation.''