A prominent member of the Lok Sabha has submitted a privilege notice in the House against country’s top legal officer for sending him a notice after he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking a probe into information he had got from “reliable sources” about alleged “Swiss Bank Account of Goolam E Vahanvati in Singapore”.  

Acknowledging the notice received from CPI floor leader Gurudas Dasgupta in the House on Tuesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar observed: “I have received your notice of question of privilege dated August 26, 2013 against Attorney-General of India (Goolam E Vahanvati) for causing impediments in performance of your duties as a Member of Parliament by getting issued on his behalf a legal notice to you”.  She informed the MP concerned, CPI leader in the House Gurudas Dasgupta that “the matter is under my consideration”.

Letter to PM

Recalling his letter to the prime minister on August 9, the West Bengal MP charged in his breach of privilege notice that the attorney general held a Swiss bank account in Singapore which witnessed “frequent deposit of huge amount of foreign currency” and “transfer of money from that account to relatives”.  

“I also brought to the notice of the prime minister that the information about huge volume of transaction of money into and from account of Vahanvati was brought to the notice of Indian authorities by Singapore and UK agencies but no action was taken by them,” Dasgupta elaborated in his privilege notice.

Vahanvati was not available for his comments. One of his aides at his residence told this newspaper that “the AG was busy in a meeting”.  

Dasgupta’s letter pointed out that he invited Manmohan Singh’s attention on the serious issue “in his commitment to fight corruption” and “in the national interest”.

“I am passing this information to you while performing my duty as a Member of Parliament to protect the national interest and to fight black money and money laundering”, Dasgupta stated.  In the privilege notice sent under rule 223 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House, the CPI leader said he requested the prime minister to find out if his “information is right”.

Dasgupta stated that he was surprised to receive a legal notice on August 24 from ‘Karanjawala and Company Advocates’ on behalf of Vahanvati, accusing him of making “false and baseless allegations” against the top law officer of the government in his letter to the prime minister, without verifying the contents of charges. The law firm representing the attorney general wanted the member to produce “for our inspection, material if any, in your possession, in support of these allegations”. The legal notice was “not only illegal, it also encroaches upon my sacrosanct privileges”, Dasgupta contended in his breach of privilege notice.

The CPI leader told mediapersons Vahanvati was trying to impede his duties as an MP. "I have received your notice on the question of privilege against the Attorney General for causing impediments in performance of your duties as an MP by getting issued on his behalf a legal notice to you. The matter is under my consideration," the Speaker told Dasgupta in the Lok Sabha.

Later, the CPI leader said he had "received some sensitive information regarding certain foreign bank accounts. “I had asked the Prime Minister to enquire and verify this information." Maintaining that this was "a privileged letter", he said following the letter, Vahanvati sent legal notice to him in the matter.