Re-appointment of interim CBI chief challenged

New Delhi, January 14 

Common Cause, an NGO, on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Centre’s decision to re-appoint CBI Additional Director M Nageswara Rao as interim director of the probe agency.

Rao was made interim director of the CBI on October 23 after the then CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana were divested of powers and sent on leave. But the Supreme Court had on January 8 quashed the government notification. 

He was again given the charge of CBI interim director on January 10 till the appointment of a new director after a high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed Verma from the top post, two days after the top court reinstated him.

Common Cause and co-petitioner RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj have urged the top court to lay down specific mechanisms to ensure transparency in the process of appointment of CBI Director.

“The Government of India has attempted to stifle the independence of the institution by appointing the Director of CBI in an arbitrary and illegal manner,” the petition alleged. Rao's appointment was not made on the basis of recommendations of the high-powered selection panel, it was submitted. — TNS