Rao’s appointment as interim CBI chief not illegal or unauthorised: SC
NEWDELHI:The Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday a joint public interest litigation by NGO Common Cause and RTI Activist Anjali Bharadwaj, questioning the appointment of CBI’s former interim director, M Nageswara Rao. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha said there was no illegality in Rao’s appointment since a high-powered selection committee (HPSC) passed a resolution authorising the appointment in keeping with the law.
“It is apparent from the decision of the committee under Section 4A that the government was authorised to post a suitable officer as interim director due to the vacancy caused by shifting of Alok Verma. Thus, the submission raised in the petition on behalf of the petitioners that the HPSC has not authorised the appointment of interim director is totally misconceived and petitioners have failed to verify the aforesaid facts and the petition has been filed in undue haste .... ,” read the judgement, authored by Justice Mishra. In its order the court did not deal with a contempt application filed against petitioner’s advocate, Prashant Bhushan. Attorney General KK Venugopal moved a contempt plea against Bhushan for a tweet in which he insinuated that the top law officer misled the court by saying that Rao’s appointment was approved by the selection panel. The PIL wanted the top court to quash the January 10 order appointing Rao as the CBI interim director. A further prayer was made to issue appropriate direction to the Union of India to ensure that all records of deliberations and rational criteria of shortlisting and selection of the director, CBI be properly recorded and made available to citizens under the RTI.
The court, however, did not consider this.
A BENCH OF JUSTICES ARUN MISHRA AND NAVIN SINHA SAID THERE WAS NO ILLEGALITY IN RAO’S APPOINTMENT SINCE A HPSC PASSED A RESOLUTION AUTHORISING THE APPOINTMENT IN KEEPING WITH THE LAW