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Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 8
Setting aside orders of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Centre divesting him of powers and sending him on leave, the Supreme Court today ordered reinstatement of Alok Verma as CBI Director, but restrained him from taking “any fresh initiative, having no major policy or institutional implications”.
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A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SK Kaul and Justice KM Joseph said only the selection panel of Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Leader of Opposition or the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha could have taken such a decision.
Written by CJI Gogoi, the verdict was pronounced by Justice Kaul as the former was on leave.
The Bench — which has not given any clean chit to Verma — directed that the matter be placed before the high-powered committee within a week for an appropriate decision. The panel can very well divest him of his powers again, if it was convinced that the material against him warranted such a decision. Verma is still under a CVC probe.
Verma, who is due to retire by the end of this month, and Special Director Rakesh Asthana have been at loggerheads for quite some time. They were sent on leave on October 23 last year and both filed separate petitions challenging the government’s decision. Asthana’s petition was not taken up for hearing.
The Bench quashed the October 23 orders issued by the CVC and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) divesting Verma of his powers and appointing CBI Joint Director M Nageshwar Rao as Interim Director.
However, it refused to pass any orders on interim applications filed by CBI DIG Manish Sinha and DSP AK Bassi challenging their transfer to Nagpur and Port Blair, respectively. It said they were free to avail of legal remedies by filing writ petitions.
Batting for autonomy of CBI as an institution, the SC said the CBI has been perceived to be necessarily kept away from all kinds of extraneous influences so that it can perform its role as a premier investigating and prosecuting agency "without any fear and favour and in the best public interest".
“The head of the institution, namely, the Director, naturally, therefore, has to be the role model of independence and integrity, which can only be ensured by freedom from all kinds of control and interference, except to the extent that Parliament may have intended,” the Bench said.
Referring to its verdict in Vineet Narain case (1997) and subsequent change in law, the Bench said the legislative intent has been to ensure “complete insulation of the office of the CBI Director from all kinds of extraneous influences, as may be, as well as for upholding the integrity and independence of the institution of the CBI as a whole”.
In the Vineet Narain judgment, the SC had said the CBI chief can’t be transferred without the consent of the selection panel and that he shall have a two-year tenure. The Bench said, “Though the Director is to be appointed by the Centre, no provision with regard to interim suspension or removal is to be found in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.”
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