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JPC yet to decide on calling Sinha

P Vaidyanathan Iyer & Subhomoy Bhattacharjee

The joint parliamentary committee on the stock scam is undecided on whether to call Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to depose before it.

Talking to Business Standard, JPC chairman PM Tripathi said, "If required, the committee can call the finance minister also."

He said that technically there was no bar on asking the finance minister to appear before the committee if needed. According to Tripathi, since parliamentary committees work on the basis of written submissions, a written statement by the finance minister may be sufficient. The 1992 JPC headed by Ram Niwas Mirdha had accepted a written statement by the then Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh.

The JPC is meeting on Tuesday and the day after to finalise the list of witnesses and the schedule of their appearance before the committee. The committee is expected to call the witnesses a week after the technical briefing is completed by May 30.

In the last set of technical briefings scheduled for the next two days, the department of company affairs and National Securities Depository Ltd will brief the committee on their respective roles in the primary markets, Tripathi said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India interim report will be a good reference point for the committee, he added.

The JPC will, however, start recording the deposition of witnesses even as Sebi continues to work on its final report, he added.

Tripathi further said the interest levels of JPC members have been high going by the last few meetings. "A less than one-third strength of the committee has little meaning," he said.

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