NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday disallowed the privilege notices given against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the leak of the Pathak report on the oil-for-food scam.

He cited the rulings of his predecessors and ``well-established'' positions to hold that ``no breach of privilege or contempt of the House has been occasioned by the leakage of the contents of the report.''

While accepting the ruling, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra urged the Speaker to direct the Government to order an enquiry into the leak.

The notices were given earlier this week by Mr. Malhotra, Santosh Gangwar and B. C. Khanduri of the BJP; Braja Kishore Tripathy of the Biju Janata Dal; Prabhunath Singh and George Fernandes of the Janata Dal (United); Sukhdev Singh Libra of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Mohan Singh of the Samajwadi Party and M. Jagannath of the Telugu Desam.

Pointing out that he himself had expressed resentment against the leak, Mr. Chatterjee, however, said: "There are ample authorities to hold that giving premature publicity to any matter connected with the business of the House is not a breach of privilege and contempt of the House, though in some cases it may amount to an act of impropriety. It has been held that no privilege of Parliament is involved if [a] statement on any matter of public interest is not made in the House first and is made outside.''

Mr. Chatterjee cited the rulings of the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha G. V. Mavalankar and two of his successors. Also, he quoted the Thomas case and the Dalton case in the House of Commons, in which budget leak was not treated as a breach of privilege.

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