The Supreme Court asked the centre to respond to the petition filed by Tata Chief Ratan Tata seeking a direction to the government to probe leakage of audio tapes containing his private conversation with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and stop their further publication. The apex court issued notices to Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, CBI, Income Tax Department and Finance Ministry asking them to file an affidavit on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing on December 13. The court also directed that two magazines – Open and Outlook, which had published the conversations, be made parties to the petition by Tata and issued notices to them.