Prepare Radia transcripts, apex court tells I-T department

The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Income Tax (I-T) department to prepare the transcripts of the tapes of Niira Radia's telephone conversations that it had tapped in the wake of allegations of Radia amassing wealth and having foreign connections.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya directed the director general (investigations) to get the transcripts of 2,800 telephone conversations of Niira Radia and submit it to a court within two months.

The apex court said this in the course of the hearing of a petition by industrialist Ratan Tata seeking to restrain the media from publishing the transcripts of the Radia tapes as it violated his right to privacy.

The court direction came when it was told by Additional Solicitor General A.S. Chandhok that the I-T Department does not prepare the transcripts but merely hears them and prepares a report on relevant material for appraisal by the review committee.

The court said the complete transcripts of the Radia tapes were necessary to address the prayer by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking directions to place these transcripts in the public domain. The CPIL has said that those portions of the transcripts which are personal in nature could be held back.