New Delhi: Former law minister Ram Jethmalani launched a sweeping offensive on Thursday that has the potential to set off deep political rumblings, taking on the prime minister, the Chief Justice of India and attorney general over his ouster from the Union cabinet.

While Jethmalani accused Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of allowing himself to be "misled" into sacking him, he called into question the propriety of some of Chief Justice A.S. Anand's observations in the Supreme Court.

As for Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, Jethmalani, 76, let loose a volley of damning allegations of official misconduct and violation of rules against him. Challenging the government's stand that he had resigned on his own, Jethmalani said, "Let me not pretend that I just resigned. I was sacked."

While saying he did not "blame the prime minister at all", Jethmalani charged Vajpayee with being "misled" into believing he (Jethmalani) had "unnecessarily angered" the chief justice and the attorney general.

Addressing a news conference where he released the 17-page statement over his resignation he wished to make in the Rajya Sabha and which was deferred by chairman Krishna Kant yesterday, Jethmalani said, "I was not informed of the reasons which called for this demand (for his resignation) and was left to conjecture."

Though maintaining that he had "extremely cordial" relations with Anand, Jethmalani made bold to say that the "propriety" of the chief justice's statement in the court on July 21, in which he censured government functionaries for making comments contrary to the government's affidavit on the issue of the Srikrishna Commission Report, was "questionable".

Anand had seemed to question Jethmalani's assertion that Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who had been indicted by the report for the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai, could not be prosecuted for his allegedly inflammatory writings as the case was time-barred.

The former law minister today opened up an entirely new front by alleging that the chief justice had been "cold" towards him because he was seized of a legal matter concerning members of Anand's family, namely, his wife and mother-in-law. Jethmalani alleged they had obtained a decree in their favor from the "hapless" subordinate judiciary in Madhya Pradesh in a suit barred by limitation for two decades.

Explaining the sequence of events, Jethmalani said the matter first came to light in a magazine that levelled the allegations. But once he began to deal with it, the former law minister said a cabinet colleague told him that his interest had "upset" the chief justice and that he might be dropped from the Union cabinet.

Jethmalani also referred to the appointment of the chairman for the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC), in which, he said, he refused to consult the chief justice. Jethmalani was also minister for company affairs, a portfolio that goes with law.

Jethmalani said the rules stipulated consultation with the chief justice only in the appointment of a sitting judge and not a retired judge, as was the fact in this case. When Anand insisted that he be consulted, Jethmalani said he stuck to his standpoint.

"I do not easily surrender the privilege of the executive merely to keep a chief justice happy and contented," he said, adding, "This seems to have offended his lordship's dignity." Anand is presently abroad.

The former law minister also levelled serious allegations of official misconduct by Attorney General Sorabjee.

He said the attorney general had compromised his office by giving legal opinion for a fee to the business family of the Hindujas, who are among those investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Bofors kickbacks case. Jethmalani also accused Sorabjee of giving his legal opinion on policy matters in a telecom case, in which the government wrote off outstanding dues from various parties.

"Government's decision may well be justified on economic grounds and I supported the Cabinet decision, but the attorney general has no business to give advice on matters of policy," Jethmalani said.

He also alleged that Sorabjee was reimbursed for "huge bills" which ran into hundreds of thousands of rupees for advising the government on the telecom matter though the fees were not legally admissible. Jethmalani alleged he was "asked" to change the rules, which he refused. "Ultimately the payment was made even without amendment of the rules," he said.