The Income Tax department has deployed a special team to transcribe the remaining recordings of the telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia after the Supreme Court had recently directed it to do so.

The department, according to sources, had earlier gone into the details of only those portions of recordings which it suspected related to alleged tax evasion.

Sources said the entire conversation would be transcribed by the team within the apex court stipulated time of two months.

The Supreme Court had last week directed the Income Tax (I-T) department, which had intercepted 5,800 telephone conversations of Radia, to get them transcribed within 2 months for a proper probe as some of them concern national security.
The department had earlier decided to hand over the remaining portion of the recordings to CBI which was carrying out its probe in the 2G spectrum allocation case on the basis of the… Continue reading →

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the income tax (IT) department, which had intercepted 5,800 telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, to get them transcribed within two months for a proper probe as some of them concern national security.

The court was annoyed that in such a “serious matter” the I-T department has not prepared the transcript of all the intercepted calls, some of which relate to “dubious” fiscal transactions having impact on national security.

A Bench of justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya expressed unhappiness over the fact the probe into the incident was moving on the basis of the “analysis” of the transcript provided by the income tax department to the CBI.

When Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval made it clear that the transcript of the entire 5,800 intercepted conversations of Radia was not done, the bench said “it will be appropriate that conversation should be transcribed.… Continue reading →

New Delhi: Unimpressed by the status of the ongoing probe into telephone intercepts of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Niira-Radia>, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it was a very serious matter needing much more intense investigations than what was done by theincome tax department<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/income-tax-department> in the past three years.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/S-J-Mukhopadhaya> was surprised to learn that except for some intercepts transcribed by the CBI for investigation into Radia’s alleged role in the arbitrary allotment of 2G licences, no other agency or the I-T department, which intercepted the conversations, had prepared a complete transcript of the 5,831 tapped calls.

It ordered the I-T department to transcribe all telephone intercepts within two months and file it before the court, hinting that the court was not going to let national interest be compromised and the issue swept under… Continue reading →

The intercepted telephonic conversations of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia with various persons, including industrialist Ratan Tata, is likely to be scrutinised by the Supreme Court, which has sought a copy of the transcript of the 5,800 calls recorded by the income-tax (I-T) department.
In what could spell trouble for those involved in dubious conversations, a bench presided over by Justice G.S.
Singhvi on Thursday directed the constitution of a team of I-T officers, including those involved in the surveillance, to prepare transcripts of the conversations.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2199303/NEWS-IN-BRIEF-Supreme-Court-requests-copy-Radia-tapes.html#ixzz25ivRjFJW

Indian government has a strange method to deal with corruption. Instead of elimination of corruption, the Indian government tries to eliminate corruption exposing news. This is not new for us as we have been facing censorship at the hands of Google and Indian government for long.

As per the latest alert by the exclusive blog on censorship initiatives of Google and Indian government<http://googlecensorships.blogspot.com/>, Google has once again obliged Indian government by becoming its censorship buddy. Thus, Google continues to censor news in India<http://googlecensorships.blogspot.com/2012/09/google-continues-to-censor-news-in-india.html> on behalf of Indian government.

Google has censored the news item titled “Radia Tapes, Ratan Tata’s Privacy, Fundamental Rights and Public Interest<http://cjnewsind.blogspot.com/2012/09/radia-tapes-ratan-tatas-privacy.html>” on 05-09-2012. It seems the Indian government has become too fussy about disclosing the source of leaks of Radia tapes. The Supreme Court of India has been asking for long about the source of leak, but Indian government does… Continue reading →

Privacy is a sacrosanct right that any civilized society must recognise. However, we have no dedicated privacy rights and laws in India<http://ictps.blogspot.com/2011/10/privacy-rights-and-laws-in-india.html>.  This is despite the fact that privacy laws in India and privacy rights in India<http://ptlbindia.blogspot.com/2012/08/privacy-laws-in-india-and-privacy-rights-in-india.html> have been constantly demanded in India by various civil liberty stakeholders. Even we have no dedicated data protection laws in India<http://ictps.blogspot.com/2012/08/data-protection-laws-in-india-and-privacy-rights-in-india.html> as on date.

This is bizarre as in the present information and communication technology (ICT) era absence of privacy and data protection laws in India are more by design than ignorance. Techno legal experts in India have been suggesting that we must give a special attention to the privacy rights in India in the information age<http://ictps.blogspot.com/2011/06/privacy-rights-in-india-in-information.html>.

They maintain that privacy and data protection requirements are essential part of civil liberties protection in cyberspace<http://perry4law.com/hr/index.html>. It would not be wrong to assume privacy… Continue reading →

In a huge embarrassment to the Centre, despite its denial of having played any role in the leak of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia tapes, the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine the official files — that dealt with the grant of permission for interception and the storage of tapes — to ascertain Government’s claim.

The Government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) that had probed the matter had said it was unable to trace the source of the leak. Against this backdrop, the bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya called for the official files in the case.

After listening to arguments by ASG AS Chandioke, who appeared for the Centre, the bench remarked, “We would like to know the person who is responsible for the leak.” The Centre relied on the two reports of the IMC. But the bench dismissed it saying, “About the committee, the less said the better.… Continue reading →

The Supreme Court Tuesday said the government’s probe report into the leak of the Radia tapes, which led to the unearthing of the 2G scam, was “hardly satisfactory” and its failure to prevent such an incident could have security implications for the country.

The inquiry report into the leak of income-tax department’s tapped conversations between former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata was handed over to the court in a sealed cover last week.
The government claimed the tapes were not leaked at its behest, or by its officials.

“Those probe reports are hardly satisfactory… Somebody must be made accountable for the leakage,” said a bench of justice GS Singhvi and justice SJ Mukhopadhaya.

Coming down hard on the government, the court said though probe report failed to pinpoint the source of the leak, it was not giving clean chit to anyone.

“In future it would… Continue reading →

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s efforts to identify who leaked the Radia tapes and ordered the Centre to show it the file containing orders to intercept corporate lobbyist Niira Radia’s telephones and its safe keeping.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhay told additional solicitor general A S Chandiok to place the file before it on Wednesday and said, “We will like to know the person responsible for the leakage. The reports are hardly satisfactory. Of inter-ministerial committee report, the less said the better. After all, someone should be accountable. We will also direct about future safe-keep of the telephone intercepts.”

When Chandiok said the Centre would file an affidavit detailing steps taken to prevent leak of telephone intercepts in the light of Radia tape excerpts finding its way to the media, the bench said, “We do not want… Continue reading →

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said the report submitted by the central government, on how taped conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia were leaked, was unsatisfactory. The court also pulled up the government for not putting in place a mechanism to prevent such leaks.  These observations came after the central government today rejected the allegation that the tapes were leaked from its side.

The court asked, “The moment you say leakage is not from your side, from where it has taken place? Who is responsible? Your report is  hardly satisfactory.”

The two judges hearing the case also observed , “Some of the intercepted transcript pertain to national security. When you say you are not responsible for the leakage, persons other than those connected with it might be involved   These persons will be possessing these sensitive information.  It is one thing to say so far… Continue reading →