The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed former telecom minister A Raja for showing disrespect to the Prime Minister and for ?overruling? his advice to defer the 2G spectrum allocation by a few days.

For the second consecutive day, Raja came in the line of fire with the apex court noting that he had not paid heed to the Prime Minister?s letter which advised him to wait for some days before taking action on the allocation of spectrum. Besides, it said that he had termed as ?out of context? the Law ministry?s advice to refer the matter to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) and DoT?s suggestion to seek top law officers of the country – Attorney General?s and the Solicitor General?s – opinion on the issue.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly took strong exception to the tone and tenor of Raja?s letter to the PM wherein words like ?capricious, unfair, discriminatory, and arbitrary? were used.

The bench in a sarcastic manner observed that ?Look at the command of his language. When you address a letter to the highest executive, the tenor of the language should be tempered. Here, it is a question of attitude?.

? Raja first received opinion of the Law Ministry which he overruled by saying it was out of context, then he received a letter of PM on the same day asking him to wait and let me (PM) know further action you (Raja) take. That is also ignored. Is this the way the government functions?? the court questioned Raja?s counsel T R Andhyarujina.

? Nothing could have happened if you would have waited for two-three days after receiving the letter from the Prime Minister,? the bench snapped.

Andhyarujina, however, in his defence vehemently denied having shown disrespect to the Prime Minister. ?I may be guilty of various sins but not guilty of showing disrespect to the Prime Minister,? Raja told the court.

The Bench also sought Andhyarujina?s personal opinion on the issue. ?Tell us from your experience if a minister can write to the PM saying that an opinion given by the Law ministry is out of context…The colleagues in the ministry do not write out of context. We do not have such experience. We have been chief justices of the high courts. They work with greater sense of responsibility,? the Bench said.

Raja also refuted the Comptroller and Auditor General Report on 2G spectrum scam in the court and claimed that he followed Trai?s recommendations in allocation of 2G spectrum.

He said that the CAG report that blamed him for a total loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer was highly speculative.

He said that Raja only took over in May 2007 and was continuing with the policy that was being implemented by his predecessors.

At the outset, the government placed before the apex court in sealed cover recorded tapes containing the conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others relating to the 2G spectrum allocation case.