The Supreme Court Friday set a two-week deadline for the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its probe against CBI chief Alok Verma, who along with Special Director Rakesh Asthana was divested of duties and sent on leave following their bitter feud, and appointed a former apex court judge to monitor the inquiry.
Gandhi courted arrest after leading a protest of party workers outside the CBI headquarters in the national capital and was taken to nearby Lodhi Colony police station where he was detained for 30 minutes along with other party leaders before they were let off.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the apex court order was a "positive development."
The court also observed it did not want the CBI issue before the court to linger on.
"This is not in the interest of the country," it said. The internal crisis in the CBI was unprecedented in the 55-year history of the country's premier probe agency.
The court made it clear the supervision of the probe by a former supreme court judge was a "one-time exception" given the "peculiar facts" of the case and does not cast reflection on any authority of the government.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi while directing that the CVC probe into the allegations made in the August 24 note/letter of the Cabinet Secretary with regard to Verma be conducted under the supervision of Justice(retd) A K Patnaik also barred IPS officer M Nageswara Rao from taking any policy decisions or any major decision. Rao was given interim charge of looking after the duties of the CBI Director.
"We make it clear that entrustment of supervision of on-going enquiry by the CVC to a former judge of this court is a one-time exception which has been felt necessary by this court in the peculiar facts of this case and should not be understood to be casting any reflection on any authority of the Government of India," said the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. The CVC has the superintendent authority above the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI).
It further said that a list of all the decisions taken by Rao between October 23 and up to this hour including decisions with regard to transfer of investigations, change of investigating officer(s) etc will be furnished to the court in a sealed cover on or before November 12--the next date of hearing-- after which it would pass appropriate orders.
Shortly after taking charge on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday earlier this week, Rao effected transfers of 13 officers with most of them being considered close to Verma.
The court made it clear that from now on Rao, who is a Joint Director of CBI, would only perform the routine tasks that are essential to keep the CBI functional.
During the hearing, the court at first remarked that decisions taken by Rao since October 23 are not to be implemented but later it ordered that it would decide on that aspect only after perusing the decisions taken by him.
The bench sought responses from the Centre and CVC on the plea of Verma who has also sought a stay on the Centre's order giving interim charge of his post to Rao. However, this prayer was not raised during the hearing.
"The enquiry in respect of the allegations made in the note/letter of the Cabinet Secretary dated August 24, 2018 as regards the present Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Alok Verma shall be completed by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) within a period of two weeks from today," the bench noted in its order.
Asthana has also moved the Supreme Court with a separate petition in the matter.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CVC, said the commission was under the process of conducting inquiry and keeping in view the large number of documents involved, 10 days time would not be sufficient to complete the inquiry.
Later, the court granted two weeks to the CVC to complete the inquiry.
Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for Verma, said the CBI director was appointed for a two-year tenure with the approval of a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
"The question is whether the tenure could be breached at any time?," Nariman asked.
Gandhi repeated the allegations against the Modi government over the Rafale jet deal. He alleged that the action against Verma was linked to what it called his keenness to probe the jet contract, a charge firmly rejected by the government.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala while hailing the court order said truth prevails in Supreme Court.
Jaitley said that what has happened in the Supreme Court today is that it has further strengthened the fairness criteria.
"They have fixed a time limit that this must be over in two weeks which is a positive development and in order to ensure that the highest standards of fairness are maintained even in the inquiries, they have appointed a retired judge as an oversight judge to ensure that the CVC inquiry is absolutely fair," he told reporters.
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