SC to hear Swamy's plea on security clearances

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on November 28 a plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking a direction to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to frame detailed guidelines and "fool-proof policy" for grant of security clearances.

A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao agreed to hear the plea in which Swamy said both the Delhi High Court and Bombay High Court recently took divergent views on the matter of security clearances while dealing with e-auction process of private FM radio channels.

"The matters related to the national security of the country are specifically been delegated by the President of India to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and not to any other department or body of the Union.
 

"That means any decision by the Home Ministry on the subject of the national security cannot be questioned by any other ministry or persons. The matter of national security being a specialised job and therefore is an exclusive domain of MHA," his plea said.

It said, "The petitioner herein was alarmed that some of the 2G accused were being permitted on a doubtful and contrived security clearance to participate in the e-auction process of private FM radio channels (phase III) and airwaves held by the central government."

Swamy in his plea said that in particular, Sun Group is controlled by Kalanidhi Maran and former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and both of them are accused in Aircel-Maxis scam case.

"The control of the radio and airwaves as well as electronic media by the central government is an extremely important aspect of national security and this court has time and again emphasised that the national security cannot be compromised," he claimed.

"The inadequate security clearance policy of government and the two judgements of Delhi and Bombay high courts can be used as a ground to bypass the mandatory security clearance process by the companies and this could become a potent threat to the national security of the country," the BJP leader's plea said.

It alleged that "inadequacy" and "non-uniformity" in security clearance policy of the government has created this problem where a "tainted person or a company" can be part of a process which can have serious impact on the national security of the country.