The Supreme Court has asked the Government to explain the action taken by it on the showcause notice issued to Reliance Infocomm for intercepting politician Amar Singh’s telephone five years ago.

A Bench of Mr Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly asked the Attorney General, Mr G.E. Vahanvati, to inform the court about the follow-up action on the Government’s showcause notice issued to Reliance Infocomm on December 31, 2005.

The Bench also pulled up Reliance Infocomm for filing a “vague” affidavit on the issue of tapping Mr Singh’s telephone. It asked the company to bring original records pertaining to the case, which had been given by Delhi Police for probe.

During the hearing, the Bench also expressed displeasure over the manner in which various parties filed the affidavit on Mr Singh’s petition, filed in 2006, alleging tapping of his telephone by the Government for “political reasons’’.

“We found that the affidavits were not in consonance with the law,” the Bench said, adding that it was a very serious matter but the officials were very casual in their approach.

The Bench asked the Delhi Government to place before it the status report on the probe into the case, detailing the progress in the investigation.

It directed the Solicitor-General, Mr Gopal Subramanium, to ask the Delhi Police to file its affidavit in accordance with the law and posted the matter for further hearing on February 9.

The petition filed by Mr Amar Singh had raised the issue of “unauthorised” tapping of telephone and “cozy” relations between the Government and some telecom service providers.

During the hearing, the Bench was informed by Mr Subramanium that the conversation was tapped on the basis of a “forged” letter. Four persons were being prosecuted in the trial in which the examination of witnesses is on.

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