Wednesday, November 9 2005 15:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress today (Nov 9, 2005) sought to puncture holes on the credibility of the Volcker committee report in the wake of reports that the committee was not sure whether it had sought comments of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh before recording the observations against him.

"From day one we have been saying that there is no notice and if there is no notice, there could not have been opportunity or adjudication proceedings. Both are fatal flaws", party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

He said in view of this, the credibility of the report is 'naturally, completely eroded' in the absence of any notice or proceedings.

Singhvi stated this when asked to comment on reports from New York in which Paul Volcker, author of the controversial report that named Singh and the Congress party as beneficiaries in Iraqi oil payoffs was not definite whether he had sought the former External Affairs Minister's comments.

To a query, the spokesman said the committee would not take more than two minutes time to produce a copy of the notice to reveal to when, whom and what address it sent any such communication to the party. Congress has been insisting that it had not been served any notice by the UN appointed panel.