The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Union government on a PIL, which said that the public had a right to know the contents of intercepted telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with the high and mighty in politics and industry.
A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S S Nijjar sought the Centre's response on the PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation.
The NGO's advocate Prashant Bhushan argued about the public interest involved in making the tapes public. The petitioner requested the court to "lift forever, the officially protected cloak of secrecy that conceals from public gaze, any revelation of the backdoor manipulation of government and active subversion of government decisions and policy for private commercial interest".
The NGO said, "These conversations deal with extremely important matters of 'public affairs' and 'public interest'.