The Supreme Court has agreed to hear next week a plea filed against M Nageswara Rao’s appointment as interim Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Plea also sought transparency in the process of short-listing, selection and appointment of the CBI director.
The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Common Cause and RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, appealed to the bench, also comprising Justices N L Rao and and S K Kaul, to hear the plea this Friday.
The CJI told Bhushan that it was "definitely not possible" to hear the matter on Friday and the plea would be heard next week.
In another related development, on Tuesday, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge termed the appointment of Rao as "illegal".
Kharge, who is part of the prime minister-headed three-member panel that removed Alok Verma as CBI chief despite the Congress leader's dissent note, alleged that the government is scared of the CBI being led by an "independent" director.
"The government should come clean by releasing the CVC report, the report of Justice Patnaik and the minutes of the meeting held on January 10, 2019, so that the public can draw its own conclusion on this matter," he said in his letter to the prime minister, while accusing the government of violating the law in appointing Rao.
"The appointment of an interim director is illegal and against section 4A (1) and 4A (3) of the DSPE Act.
"The actions of the government in this matter indicate that it is scared of having the CBI headed by an independent director," he said
Kharge said the government should establish its bonafides in fighting corruption and ensuring the integrity of the premier investigating agency of the country by convening an immediate meeting of the selection committees as per Section 4A(1) of the DSPE Act to appoint a director without any further delay.
"Any delay would further erode the faith the public has placed in this institution and the credibility of this institution," he said.
"It is unfortunate that the manipulative actions of the government are directly responsible for causing deep embarrassment to the judiciary.
"The fact that the government did not even issue a reasoned order while removing Alok Verma led to the unfair situation where a member of the judiciary has been forced to defend the decision taken indirectly," Kharge said while referring to the comments made by Justice (retd) Patnaik on the CVC report.
"The government seems to be worried about something and in a tearing hurry to dispose a man from his office, that an irrational decision was taken to transfer Alok Verma as DG Fire Services even after his superannuation," he said.
Barely two days after the Supreme Court reinstated him, Verma was recently removed as CBI director by the high-powered committee headed by PM Modi on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty, in an unprecedented action in the central probe agency's 55-year history.
There were eight charges against Verma in the CVC report presented before the committee that also comprised Kharge and Justice A K Sikri, appointed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as his nominee.
(With inputs from agencies)
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