SC lifts curbs on publishing Amar's tape contents

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today lifted its gag order on the media restraining it from broadcasting and publishing contents of the taped conversations of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh with top politicians and Bollywood stars. [caption id=“attachment_8229” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The media can now publish contents of the taped conversations of Amar Singh with top politicians and Bollywood stars. Vijay Mathur/Reuters “] [/caption] A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly dismissed Singh’s petition and vacated its interim order passed on February 27, 2006 restraining the media from making contents of the conversation public. The bench also said that there has been suppression of facts by the politician before the court in the case. Justice Ganguly, who wrote the judgment for the bench which also included Justice GS Singhvi, said that no case is made out against the Centre and its authorities as they were not involved in tapping Singh’s telephone. The bench had reserved its verdict on Singh’s petition on March 29 after hearing him and an NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), which has opposed his plea and had sought a direction for making public all his taped conversations. Singh today refused to comment on the Supreme Court order. “I have not seen the order. I have not got it. Let me get the details, then I will definitely comment on it,” he said when asked for his reaction. Initially, Singh had called a press conference here this evening to give his reaction on the order, but later postponed it to tomorrow. PTI