Iraq scam: HC admits pleas of Natwar, son

The Delhi High Court on Friday admitted the petitions of former external affairs minister Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh, challenging a single bench order of the court that refused to provide all the documents on Iraq's oil-for-food scam to them.

Holding that the issues in this case needed to be heard at length, a division bench comprising Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna posted the matter for August two for further hearing.

The bench also refused to accept the contention of Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra, who pleaded for the dismissal of the petitions.

"The inquiry is at the preliminary stage and the petitioners (father and son) have refused to respond to the show cause notice issued by the Enforcement Directorate for the last one year," he said.

Justice B D Ahmed had on July five rejected the contention of the duo, saying the Supreme Court judgments on this issue clearly said that only those documents, which have been relied upon by the government for taking action against the accused, will be supplied to them.

"In the light of the Supreme Court judgments, I cannot hold otherwise," Justice Ahmed had said, adding, "Let us hope that law further develops on the issue."

The duo had approached the court when the government body had refused to provide all documents collected by it in the oil-for-food scam.

They had referred to the documents brought by India's special envoy Virender Dayal from the United States. The two had further contended that ED did not rely on the Pathak Inquiry Authority report, which said that Natwar Singh did not derive any contractual benefit from the scam.