SC verdict on CBI chief Verma’s petition today
TURF WAR The SC had reserved its judgment on December 6 last yr
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Tuesday pronounce the much-awaited verdict on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Kumar Verma’s petition against the Centre’s directive to divest him as the chief of the probe agency.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on December 6 reserved its judgment after hearing arguments on behalf of Verma, the Centre and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The same bench will deliver the judgment on Tuesday.
In a midnight order issued on October 23, Verma was asked to go on leave, prompting him to rush to the top court challenging the administrative orders. Verma’s two-year tenure as CBI director ends on January 31.
The Centre told the apex court that it was forced to intervene because of the rift between Verma and his number two, Rakesh Asthana — a development that is believed to have dented CBI’S image.
Both Verma and Asthana have accused each other of corruption. A CBI team had begun a criminal investigation against Asthana. As the feud between the two senior officers became public, the government also asked Asthana to go on leave and as an interim measure it appointed CBI’S joint director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, as the agency’s temporary chief.
With Rao’s approval, orders were issued to transfer and reassign 13 officials, including those who were probing the case against Asthana.
Verma has sought quashing of three orders of October 23, 2018 -one by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and two by the department of personnel and training (DOPT), as being without jurisdiction.
The move to send him on leave amounted to removing him, he said, which cannot be done without the concurrence of a highpowered committee that approves CBI director’s appointment. The court had also heard the plea moved by NGO Common Cause, which had sought a courtmonitored SIT probe into the allegations of corruption against various CBI officers, including Asthana.
Challenging the government’s decision, Verma’s counsel and senior advocate Fali S Nariman had argued that the CBI director was appointed on February 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”. He argued there was no basis for the CVC to pass an order recommending that Verma be sent on leave. NEW DELHI: Water levels in the shaft where miners have been trapped in Meghalaya since December 13 have not shown any signs of receding despite continuous pumping with heavy duty pumps, Supreme Court was told by both Centre and Meghalaya on Monday.
Status reports were placed before a bench led by justice AK Sikri during the hearing of a petition filed by advocate Aditya N Prasad who claimed authorities acted belatedly in launching rescue operations at the site.
The Centre said 71 NDRF personnel, 20 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, 16 personnel from the Navy, besides those from Odisha Fire Service, Coal India and officials of Kirloskar Motors were engaged in the rescue efforts.
The vertical shafts of the mine were scanned using remotely operated vehicles on December 31, the Centre’s status report stated. However, no entrapped bodies were found there. One horizontal shaft with diameter of 2-3 feet was also identified but “diving in this shaft can only be undertaken after reduction of water level”, it said. Meghalya government too explained the difficulties it has faced so far.
“There is complete lack of availability of electricity in nearby areas and high tension electricity is about 5km from the site of occurrence,” stated the Meghalaya report.