An RTI reply has revealed that attorney general G E Vahanvati attended a meeting on 2G spectrum allocation in December 2007 in his capacity as solicitor general where jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja and the then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee were also present.

However, no minutes of the said meeting were maintained, nor were a copy retained of the brief note prepared that day by Vahanvati and handed over to the minister.

Initially, the CPIO of DoT had refused to answer the queries posed in the RTI filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal that prompted the latter to appeal before the CIC. It was only after the information watchdog struck off the grounds cited by DoT to deny the information that the latter sourced it from the office of the attorney general.

In his RTI query, Agrawal had sought to know if there was any discussion between Mukherjee and Vahanvati on the 2G spectrum allocation matter. A S Malhotra, PPS to the AG office, replied that the office of the attorney general and solictor general does not have a CPIO to furnish the information he asked for. "In the first week of December 2007, there was a discussion held with the then external affairs minister in relation to issues raised in the proceedings filed by COAI before the TDSAT in relation to allocation of spectrum.

"The contentions of the COAI and those of the DoT were explained to the minister," the RTI reply says.

When Agrawal demanded minutes of the spectrum meeting, he was told that none were prepared.