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Official sources said Sibal will hold charge of the Ministry held by DMK's A Raja, who resigned on Sunday night facing allegations of irregularities in the 2-G spectrum allocation.
The arrangement is seen to be temporary in view of the ongoing Parliament session when issues related to the ministry are to be handled at the senior level, particularly at a time when the ministry is facing allegations of corruption of huge magnitude.
By tradition, a reshuffle of the Council of Ministers is not undertaken during a Parliament session.
Sibal, a renowned lawyer-turned-politician, was a week earlier given the additional charge of Ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, which fell vacant after incumbent Prithviraj Chavan was made chief minister of Maharashtra.
In another decision, V Narayansamy, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, was given additional charge of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which also fell vacant after Chavan's departure.
Commenting on the additional charge given to him, Kapil Sibal said any ministry when given is a challenge and decisions should be taken after proper thinking.
Reacting to the Prime Minister's move, DMK Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu said party chief M Karunanidhi has not yet decided on a successor to A Raja and suggested that Sibal getting Telecom as additional charge could be a "stop-gap arrangement".
"No one has any say on the issue except the Prime Minister. As such, our leader (M Karunanidhi) has not given any name to succeed Raja to the Prime Minister," he told PTI here.
"It is 100 per cent the prerogative of the Prime Minister to allot vacant portfolios. DMK has three Cabinet slots in the UPA government and with the exit of Raja, one slot is vacant," he said.
"Our leader will take a decision on the successor after consultations with senior party leaders and then convey the name to the Prime Minister," he said.
Congress sources said Sibal being given additional charge does not mean that the portfolio has been taken away from the DMK.
But, they said, he was given the charge because he understands the nuances of the telecom subject.
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The rush among parties to have their own candidates as cabinet ministers proves it all, it ist because of the ministers pay but due to all the chances of power and corruption that it brings. Knowing this, checks and balances, or changes in the current system should be brought about to prevent corruption.
Kapil Sibal the man from Harvard has a clean image despite too talkative. I don't know how much he has done for RTE in its implementation.I wish the should justice to his job and improve the ministry qualitatively.