CBI Interim Director: SC Adjourns Hearing to Feb 6

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta adjourned to February 6 the petition filed by NGO Common Cause and RTI Activist Anjali Bhardwaj questioning the appointment of Nageswara Rao as CBI Interim Director.

The Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted on Friday that the High Powered Committee is set to meet on Friday to select the new CBI Director. The AG also submitted that the appointment of Rao was made on the basis of sanction from the Department of Personnel and Training.

The bench observed that CBI cannot be kept under the control of Interim Director for long. Then, the bench adjourned hearing on the matter, saying "it will watch what happens in the meeting today".

On Thursday, Justice N V Ramana recused from hearing the plea, becoming the third judge to recuse from the plea after CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice AK Sikri.

On January 21, CJI Gogoi had recused from hearing the petition, citing the reason that he was part of the High Powered Committee for selection of next CBI Director. The matter was, therefore, assigned to the bench headed by Justice Sikri, the next senior judge.

Later, Justice Sikri too recused from hearing the petition on January 24. After that matter was assigned to the bench headed by Justice Bobde, the third senior judge. However, it got assigned to the bench of Justice Ramana, the fourth senior judge, as Justice Bobde is unavailable due to medical leave.

It may be noted that Justice Sikri was part of the High Powered Committee which took the decision to remove Alok Verma as CBI Director, two days after he was directed to be reinstated by the SC. Then the Government appointed Nageswara Rao as interim Director.

Though, Dushyant Dave, senior advocate appearing for the petitioners expressed that they have no objection in Justice Sikri hearing the petition, he said "I have my predicaments".

 Justice Sikri had got entangled in controversy, after news emerged that he was being nominated by the Centre to the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitration Tribunal at London, after his retirement in coming March. Since the news broke immediately after the Committee meeting of January 10, it led to a lot of speculations. Following this, Justice Sikri announced revocation of his consent to be nominated to CSAT.

Verma submitted his resignation on January 12, after the Committee's decision to remove him as CBI Director. The Committee comprising PM Modi, CJI Gogoi and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge is yet to decide on the next CBI Director.

The article has been edited by Newsclick. The full article can be read here: 

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