New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday lifted a 2006 gag order restraining the media from publishing transcripts of phone conversations of former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh.

An apex court bench of judges G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly vacated the interim order restraining the media, while dismissing the petition by Amar Singh.

Amar Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, had filed the petition in 2006 after some of his telephonic conversations were illegally tapped and were in circulation. The leader had moved the apex court and got a restraint order against their publication in media.

But the Centre for Public Interest Litigation through its lawyer Prashant Bhushan had pleaded that it was the right of people to know the alleged illegal dealings of public figures in the discharge of their public function. The application said this right of the people was guaranteed by the Article 19(1) (a) of the constitution and also upheld by the apex court.