2G scam: Delhi court reserve orders on summoning Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 3 (ANI): A Delhi Court on Saturday reserved its orders on the petition filed by Janata party chief Subramanian Swamy to summon Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram over his alleged involvement in the multi-billion dollar 2G telecom scam.

Briefing mediapersons about the arguments held before the court on the issue, Swamy said the court has reserved its decision till December 8.

"The orders have been reserved and on both the questions including one, to give rights to summon the witnesses and second, to summon Chidambaram also along with others. The decision would come on 8," he added.

Being adamant over his demand of probing the role of Chidambaram in the scam, Swamy further stated that Chidambaram is as much responsible in the matter as the former telecom minister A Raja.

"If Raja is guilty or the main accused in the reduction of the value of the spectrum or to sell the spectrum at lesser price, then Chidambaram is also equally responsible in this matter because both of them were designated at the same time," he said.

"If Chidambaram was not happy with the less cost of the spectrum, then there is a transaction of business rules in our constitution for the ministers according to which, if there is any difference in opinion between the two ministers, then they had the liberty to appeal in the cabinet and urge it to take the decision. Chidambaram had not appealed for it, which means that he did give his consent to the decision," he added.

Chidambaram has been at the centre of political storm ever since certain reports revealed his alleged role in "deciding" the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.

His name cropped up in a recent letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee blamed his predecessor for not sticking to the established procedures in auctioning of the 2-G spectrum.

The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering he could have "stuck to the stand" of auctioning of the precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). (ANI)