The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday filed its reply on Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking his appointment as public prosecutor in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The investigating agency told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that Swamy's prayer is not tenable in law and his private complaint may be dealt separately.

"The said prayer of Swamy to appoint him as special public prosecutor and direct the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and other prosecuting agencies of the government to assist him in conducting the case is, therefore, not tenable in law and is not worth acceptable," said the CBI.

The CBI emphasized that the Central Government has already appointed senior advocate U U Lalit as the special public prosecutor in the 2G case following directions from the Supreme Court.

The matter has been put up for further proceedings for May 18, as Swamy told the court that he needed some time to argue on this.

A special court had on April 18 asked the CBI whether the private complaint of Swamy, who is the petitioner in the telecom scam case, could be tagged with the agency's FIR in the case.

Earlier on March 26, Swamy said that he would like to be the public prosecutor or an adviser to CBI during the special court session.

During a press conference in Chennai, Swamy, quoting Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, said that being a complainant, he has the right to prosecute.

According to Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, any complainant, whether he is government lawyer or not, can be a public prosecutor in a case.

Generally, under criminal procedure court, only government lawyers can be made public prosecutors.