Ratan Tata

New Delhi, Aug. 23: The government has told the Supreme Court there had been no leak from its end of the controversial Radia tapes and dared industrialist Ratan Tata to file a defamation suit for any damage to his reputation following the leak.

A two-judge bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya is hearing a plea by Tata for a probe into the leak by an independent agency, such as the CBI or the Central Vigilance Commission, and a directive to the government to put in place systemic checks and balances to prevent such leaks in the future.

At the opening of arguments today, Justice Mukhopadhaya said the government report placed in a sealed cover had denied any leak from its end. “The report says they were unable to trace the source of the leak,” he said.

This was also the underlying theme of the government’s written submissions in the case today in which the income tax (investigation) department denied that the “materials (tapes) had been removed from the custody of the respondents….”

The written submissions by Ms Indira Jaisingh contended that Tata’s phones were never tapped and hence he had no locus to allege that his rights, much less fundamental rights, were violated.

“The person whose telephone numbers were intercepted has not filed any petition…,” the government said.

Neither has Tata challenged the home secretary’s order granting authorisation for the phone tapping, it said. So he cannot argue that procedural safeguards were not followed in the case, the government said.

Regarding Tata’s complaint of loss of reputation, the government said this was a matter of defamation and not privacy.

“… remedy for the alleged loss of reputation is in the law of defamation, both civil and criminal, which deals with the question of loss of reputation,” it said.

“The petitioner (Tata) has not initiated any such action against any person claiming damages for loss of reputation. Damage to reputation is a disputed question of fact and must be proved in a manner known to law..,” the government said.

The Union government maintained that there was no cause of action for Tata to move court. His petition also has no details of the alleged failure of the government to discharge its duties to maintain secrecy and confidentiality, the government argued.

But the government did hold out an assurance that it would ensure that no publication takes place of recordings of intercepted phone calls in their custody.

The IT (investigation) DG said that the report on the probe into the leak would not be shared with Tata as he had been unable to show that his fundamental rights had been violated and that procedural safeguards had not been followed.

The government also pointed out that the IT (investigation) department was exempt from the RTI.

NGO CPIL lawyer Prashant Bhushan on his part made out a case for complete publication of all the tapes, except those parts which were private conversations.

Anything that impinges on public interest and involves public authorities must be made public, he said, prompting the court to ask whether gossip between two people should also be made public.

“The issue of truth and falsity will arise later,” he said, citing instances from the tapes which showed widespread corporate influence over executive decisions and even parliamentary debate.

Arguments in the case will continue next Tuesday.