Privilege notice over CAG report shows ignorance of fundamental rights: Bhushan

New Delhi: Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday said the breach of privilege notice sent to him by the Rajya Sabha secretariat for premature disclosure of CAG report on Reliance’s KG Basin “shows total ignorance of fundamental rights of citizens and total lack of understanding of what constitutes a breach of privilege”.
Bhushan, who has been asked to appear on February 10 before the Committee of Privileges, said, “Citizens of the country have a right to know the loot of natural resources, especially when disclosed by the CAG audits.” He said he has been “not only disclosing the CAG reports to the people as and when I get them but also using them in the courts in PILs like in the 2G scam or coal scam cases”.
Bhushan said what he has done is “duty to the citizens and fulfilling their right to information”. The CAG report on KG Basin in question, he said, now forms part of “record of Supreme Court in the PIL filed by him against the gas loot committed by Reliance”.
The senior lawyer also pointed out that according to Supreme Court judgments, “privileges of Parliament are only those privileges without which the Parliament cannot function”. “It is absurd to suggest that the disclosure of a CAG report to be tabled in Parliament can, in any manner, prevent or impede the functioning of Parliament. Perhaps the time has come to educate MPs about the notion of breach of privilege,” he said.