SC rejects contempt plea of Subramanian Swamy

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the contempt plea of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy against Chennai-based Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Ltd and another firm for filing a defamation suit in Singapore against him.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan rejected the submission of Swamy that the defamation plea was filed to deter him from pursuing the 2G scam case here in which he had raised the issue of Aircel-Maxis deal.

The court was not satisfied with the response to its query as to whether the defamation suit filed in Singapore court had any co-relation with the pending 2G case before it. "It might have been filed to create difficulties to you but you have to show the link between the two cases," the bench said adding, "Tell us the link between the two companies and the Aircel-Maxis deal".

Swamy submitted that such pleas in faraway fora abroad would hamper the honest public spirited persons and set an example to dissuade others to turn away from courts.

The bench had earlier on November 22 last year issued notices to the firms in which Swamy alleged that Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram has stakes.      The court, which had also asked Singapore-based Advantage Strategic Singapore to respond to Swamy's plea, however, did not issue notices to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, his son and one C B N Reddy, who were also made parties by Swamy.

Earlier, the notices were issued on Swamy's plea which alleged that the foreign firm, without any legal notice, lodged a defamation suit in the high court of Singapore citing "YouTube and other internet publications" which were not posted by him.