CBI Versus CBI: Supreme Court To Pronounce Judgement On Jan. 8

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on Central Bureau of Investigation Director Alok Kumar Verma’s plea against the Centre’s decision to divest him of powers and sending him on leave.

The Centre had taken a decision against Verma and CBI’s Special Director Rakesh Asthana after their feud become public as they made allegations of corruption against each other.

Verma has sought quashing of three orders of Oct. 23, 2018—one by the Central Vigilance Commission and two by the Department of Personnel and Training, as being without jurisdiction and in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

CBI’s Joint Director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre Indian Police Service officer, was given the charge of interim chief of the probe agency.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on Dec. 6 reserved the judgement after hearing arguments on behalf of Verma, the Centre, the CVC and others.

The court had also heard the plea moved by NGO Common Cause which had sought a court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the allegations of corruption against various CBI officials, including Asthana.

Verma’s two-year tenure as CBI director ends on Jan. 31. He has moved the top court challenging the Centre’s decision.

The Centre had justified its decision to divest Verma of his duties and sending him on leave before the apex court saying he and Asthana were fighting like “Kilkenny cats”, exposing the country’s premier investigating agency to “public ridicule”.

Attorney General K K Venugopal had told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, that the Centre was well “within its right to intervene” and send both officers on leave by divesting them of their powers.

Challenging the government's decision, Verma’s counsel and senior advocate Fali S Nariman had argued that the CBI Director was appointed on Feb. 1, 2017 and “the position of law is that there will be a fixed tenure of two years and this gentleman cannot be even transferred”.

Nariman had said there was no basis for the CVC to pass an order recommending that Verma be sent on leave.