Supreme Court vindicated one of our key demands: Kiran Bedi

Jaipur/Ahmedabad, Feb 1 (ANI): Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict in a 2G case petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, former senior police officer and civil society activist Kiran Bedi has said the apex court order in the telecom scam case has vindicated what they have been fighting for in Jan Lokpal movement.

"Supreme Court has exactly said what we have asking and fighting for, what people have been asking, everything to be time bound. But in Jan Lokpal Bill, there was supposed to be no sanction for prosecution. If there is evidence, the CBI starts its investigation and nobody interferes in its investigation. This is what the Jan Lokpal Bill was. Secondly in Jan Lokpal Bill, it was time bound trial and through number of special courts as needed, so within the maximum period of less than two years, a case is decided," Bedi told media in Jaipur.

Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the verdict would give a boost to the struggle against corruption.

"They have firstly again highlighted how big a menace corruption is in society and we need to tackle it on a war footage. Secondly, even when a private complainant makes a complaint and seeks sanction of the government against a public servant, the government must read the complaint on the same footing as a chargesheet filed by the CBI seeking sanction and must deal with it within the time frame prescribed in Vineet Narayan's judgement which is within four months," he added.

The apex court on Tuesday deliberated on Swamy's petition against the PMO in the 2G case and added that public officials must decide within three months on applications seeking permission to prosecute government authorities.

A special bench of Justices G. S. Singhvi and A. K. Ganguly said there should be a set time frame, and added that all matters of sanction should be decided within three months.

"If consultations are required, then another one month can be taken. If in four months the authority does not give sanction, then it shall be deemed that a sanction has been given," the bench said.

Swamy had moved the apex court in on November 24, 2010 alleging a delay by the PMO to give him sanction to file a case against former telecom minister A Raja, who is accused of being involved in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

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