New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to interfere with the appointment of M. Nageswara Rao as interim director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month.
The top court observed that “no interference is called for” as the Centre has since appointed a full-time director of the agency.
The court also refused to set any guidelines that would bring in more transparency to the process of shortlisting and selecting candidates.
The verdict delivered by Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha came on a plea filed by NGO Common Cause and RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj. It challenged Rao’s re-appointment as an interim director in January after former director Alok Verma was sacked by a high-powered committee in a 2:1 majority, days after he was reinstated.
Verma resigned from the Indian Police Service (IPS) within days of his sacking.
Rao was first appointed as interim director in October 2018 after Verma and CBI No. 2 Rakesh Asthana had an unprecedented spat over corruption charges.
Also read: Top CBI officer Nageswara Rao fined Rs 1 lakh for disobeying Supreme Court order
The case
The NGO claimed that the Modi government had “completely bypassed” consultations with the high-powered committee before appointing Rao. The plea also sought transparency in the process of appointing candidates for the top post of the probe agency.
The case earlier saw several twists and turns with at least three judges recusing themselves from hearing the case — Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices A. K. Sikri and N.V. Ramana.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal filed a contempt plea against advocate Prashant Bhushan who was representing Common Cause.
The plea was filed on the basis of Bhushan’s assertion that Venugopal, representing the Modi government, had “misled the court and perhaps submitted fabricated minutes of the HPC meeting” at a previous hearing in the case related to the issue at hand.
The verdict on this plea has been reserved by the top court.
During the pendency of this case, the Modi government appointed IPS officer Rishi Kumar Shukla as the new CBI chief on 3 February.
Also read: CJI steps away from hearing plea against appointment of Nageswara Rao as interim CBI chief