Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

Justice Patnaik back in limelight

CVC PROBE TEAM

- HT Correspond­ent

NEWDELHI: Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, will supervise the Central Vigilance Commission inquiry into allegation­s against CBI director Alok Verma, made by his deputy CBI special Director Rakesh Asthana, that is to be completed by November 11.

Justice Patnaik, who comes from Odisha, had a judicial career of 20 years a judge of the high court and Supreme Court. He retired from the Supreme court in 2014.

Justice Patnaik was appointed as a judge to the Orissa high court in 1994 and till his elevation to the Supreme Court in 2009, he served in Gauhati HC, and as chief Justice in the high courts of Chhattisga­rh and Madhya Pradesh.

He came into the limelight in 2002, when he was made part of a three member high-level committee to probe allegation­s of sexual misconduct in the infamous Mysore sex scandal- against three judges of the Karnataka high court. The committee was set up by the Chief Justice of India.

The committee gave all three judges a clean chit saying it had found no evidence against them.

In 2007 again, justice Patnaik, when he was the chief justice of Madhya Pradesh high court, was made part of the three member committee appointed by the CJI to look into allegation­s of financial misconduct against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta high court. The Committee recommende­d the removal of justice Sen as a judge.

Justice Patnaik was elevated to the top court in 2009 and had a stint of five years during which he dealt with many contentiou­s issues such as the IPL corruption scandal, the Goa mining case, the interlinki­ng of rivers, and the disqualifi­cation of MPS/MLAS upon conviction.

In the IPL corruption scandal, justice Patnaik called for the removal of N Srinivasan as the chief of .

In the Goa Mining case he along with 2 other judges ordered cancellati­on of iron ore mining leases in the state.

In the disqualifi­cation of MPS and MLAS case, a bench headed by Justice Patnaik struck down as unconstitu­tional section 8 (4) of the Representa­tion of the People Act, that allowed convicted lawmakers a three-month period for filing appeal to the higher court and get a stay on the conviction and sentence.

After his retirement in 2014, justice Patnaik stayed back in Delhi although he did not accept any post retirement job. He has been engaged in writing scholarly works and editing legal bibles such as like DD Basu’s ‘Shorter Constituti­on of India”.

KV Chowdary

began his career as a probationa­ry officer in Andhra Bank in 1978, the same year he joined the Indian Revenue Service. He rose to the post of chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) before retiring in 2014. He was made the

Central Vigilance Commission­er in 2015. As CBDT chief, he supervised many cases including the one against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, one of the root causes of conflict between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana.

who took charge as the vigilance commission­er in 2015 joined the Oriental Bank of Commerce as a probationa­ry officer in 1978 and rose to the rank of general manager in 2003. He became the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Indian Bank in 2010 where he remained till 2015. He was instrument­al in bringing out an exhaustive report on bank frauds and suggested measures to RBI to plug the gaps to check fraud.

former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Haryana cadre, is the second vigilance commission­er and holds key in the probe against Verma given the fact he has served in CBI for nine years . A batch mate of verma, he knows the intricacie­s of CBI’S working. Officials say he was instrument­al in preparing the order against Verma divesting him of responsibi­lities as CBI chief.

TM Bhasin Sharad Kumar,

 ??  ?? Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik
Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik

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