The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it has found no criminality in its inquiry initiated against former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia into the contents of the transcripts of taped conversations between Radia, politicians, lawyers, journalists and industrialists.
A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, P.S. Narasimha and Hima Kohli was informed by the CBI that an inquiry was conducted by it and it had submitted a sealed cover before it in 2015 where it was stated that no criminality was found in the conversation.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for CBI, said, “I must inform you that the CBI was directed by this court to investigate all these conversations. Fourteen preliminary inquiries were registered and the report was placed before this court in a sealed cover. No criminality was found in those. Also, now there are phone-tapping guidelines in place.”
The top court was hearing a plea filed by industrialist Ratan Tata seeking protection of the right to privacy in view of the emergence of the Radia tapes. The petition sought action against those involved in the leakage of the tapes alleging the leakage amounts to infringement of his fundamental right to life, which includes the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Tata had contended that as a corporate lobbyist Radia’s phone was tapped for probing alleged tax evasion and the tapes cannot be used for any other purpose.
In the apex court in October 2013, had directed the CBI to examine 14 issues that were identified by the agency after examining the transcripts of over 5,800 taped conversations of Radia that were originally intercepted by the government between 2008 and 2009 as part of an investigation into tax evasion.
The CBI registered 14 preliminary enquiries into the matter to probe possible offences that emerged in conversations between the corporate lobbyist and high-profile individuals and corporates.
During the hearing today, the Supreme Court asked the CBI to file an updated status report on the probe conducted by it. The matter is posted for the next hearing on 12 October.
ASG Bhati told the bench that the petition may be disposed of in the light of the right to 2017 privacy judgment of the top court where it unanimously held that privacy is a constitutionally protected right.
