Eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee feels Modi govt’s hurried move to remove CBI chief Alok Verma raises suspicion, says it was avoidable.
New Delhi: The manner in which the Narendra Modi government removed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Verma has raised suspicion and doubts in the minds of people about its intention, eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee has said.
While the Supreme Court will examine the legality of the controversial move, prima facie it appears that the government cannot circumvent the set procedure to remove a sitting CBI director and carry out the move with such inexplicable urgency, Sorabjee told ThePrint Thursday.
“The government must produce credible, cogent grounds (before the Supreme Court) because it is unusual to send someone before their tenure is over,” he said, even as he stopped short of calling the move illegal.
“The Supreme Court would want to know why this telling hurry,” the former attorney general said.
“The government has a case to answer, and it cannot say we are the government, so we did it,” Sorabjee added.
SC to hear Verma’s plea Friday
Hours after the government, in an unprecedented move, sent Verma on leave, he challenged his ouster in the Supreme Court, calling the move “patently illegal”. The court is set to hear his petition Friday.
Also read: Takes courage to withstand political influence: Ousted CBI chief Alok Verma in SC
“The move was avoidable and should have been avoided,” Sorabjee said.
“Why this midnight drama? Why this urgency? I don’t see any telling urgency to do it at midnight,” he said.
However, suspicion is not the same as evidence, he added. If the government is able to establish that it was imperative to hurriedly remove Verma from his position overnight, then the set procedure can be set aside, Sorabjee said.
1998 SC judgment
According to the Supreme Court’s own judgment in 1998 in the Vineet Narain & Others vs Union of India, the court had clearly said the transfer of “an incumbent director, CBI, in an extraordinary situation, including the need for him to take up a more important assignment, should have the approval of the selection committee”.
The selection committee comprises the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court nominated by him.
However, if the government is able to establish that there were “extraordinary circumstances” to remove him, it may be able to justify its actions before the court, Sorabjee said.
‘CBI feud brings the agency under a cloud’
He said the public slugfest between the top officers of the CBI and the government’s subsequent actions bring the agency under a cloud.
Also read: Modi govt’s brazen interference in CBI feud a bid to subvert agency: Plea in SC
“I will not call it a threat, but it brings it under a cloud, which itself is not good,” he said.
“If the public starts having doubts about the objectivity and neutrality of (the) agency, it is a bad thing, and it should not happen,” Sorabjee said.
“It may not be a reason to worry, but the government should introspect — could these things have been avoided? Because once public confidence shakes, it is a bad thing,” he said, arguing that if nothing else, the controversy has shaken the public trust in the CBI.