``Swamy did not even know the basics involved in such issues,'' Jethmalani told reporters.

Swamy has written to new CVC N Vittal seeking a detailed probe into the alleged role of Jethmalani in the ``M S Shoes land scam.''

Making a direct attack on Swamy, Jethmalani said that ``the Harvard University teacher should know that ministers do not fall under the jurisdiction of the CVC and no complaint against them could be referred to it. Complaints against ministers can only be directed to the Lok Pal.''

``Moreover, let the CVC investigate the allegations,'' the minister said sarcastically.

He said the reason for Swamy's continued attack against him, was ``nothing but sheer meaningless malice.''

Personally he hadno grudge against Swamy even today, Jethmalani added. ``If he (Swamy) comes to me tomorrow, I will help him,'' he said.

The minister said Swamy had developed an animosity against him after he (Jethmalani) was cross examined by the Jain Commission, probing the conspiracy angle of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Coincidently, it was only after his cross-examination, that justice M C Jain held that Swamy was a `liar', he added.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the ordinance appointing the CVC, Jethmalani said he would make his views known to the government.

Swamy had drawn Vittal's attention to ``a spate of illegality, immorality and plain skullduggery tantamount to corruption and reckless disregard of the law'' by Jethmalani.

Swamy had also pointed to the letter written to the prime minister in which he claimed to have annexed certain documents allegedly disclosing `undue interest shown by Jethmalani in alloting a prime land to MS Shoes.'

To this, the minister shot back saying that he had notagreed to become a minister to make money after giving up his crores of ruppes of practice. ``My only only interest is to serve the people''.

He said in any case, Swamy should be aware of the order of the district judge holding that ``the act of forfeiting the entire amount of first instalment is not justified when the authority was not in a position to perform its part of the obligations.''

Jethmalani said he had decided the case as per the order of the district judge and to prevent the unnecessary harassment of the private parties at the hand of bureaucrats.

Regarding the allegations on contract for development of 325 bigha of land to Sitaram Bhandar Trust, he said Swamy should be aware of the fact that the matter was decided by late Rajiv Gandhi during his prime ministership in 1987 and his ministry was only executing the decision.

He accused Swamy of suppressing facts like the acquisition of land by the trust was a 39-year-old story.

Jethmalani had praise for some of the bureaucrats saying thatthey were indispensible for the system, but found many of them to be corrupt of the first grade.

Asked about his tussle with the secretary in the ministry, the minister denied any such thing saying that the secretary was free to make any suggestion, but once an order was passed he was supposed to implement them.

Jethmalani also announced that a committee has been appointed to review the 25,000 pending litigations related to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and terminate them within a couple of months. Jethmalani said he would like Solicitor General of India Soli Sorabji to head the committee, formed in view of the fact that one-third of the litigations were based on `coercive and corrupt' charges. ``All such illegal cases have been decided to be withdrawn to save the citizens from suffering due to litigations,'' he declared adding that DDA was not making any effort to sort out the cases.

``The litigations only helped the lawyers,'' he added. Saying that a corruption spate prevailed in the dda, theminister pointed out that keeping this in view he in June this year decided to end the illegal monopoly of the authority which was continuing for the past 38 years.

``Scores of bureaucrats dealt with the matter and several ministers were in office. But no person applied their mind on the illegal monopoly of the DDA which prevented the private parties to come up in the capital and provide the required number of houses to the people of Delhi,'' Jethmalani said.