SC sets aside the Central government’s order divesting Alok Verma of his powers as Director of the CBI

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The Supreme Court today set aside the Central government’s order divesting Alok Verma of his powers as Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

While doing so, the Court also directed the High Power Committee to consider the matter afresh, and held that Alok Verma shall cease and desist from taking any major policy decision pending the Committee’s consideration.

The verdict was delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph. As CJI Gogoi was unavailable today, Justice Kaul pronounced the verdict in Court No. 12.

Pronouncing the verdict authored by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, the Court held that it cannot be oblivious to the directions contained in Vineet Narain & Ors. v. Union of India. The intent of bringing the directions of Vineet Narain into the statute book was to ensure complete insulation of the CBI Director, the Court held.

It was also held that the word “transfer” cannot be given its normal meaning, and that it has to be understood as encompassing acts affecting the functioning of the CBI Director.

A slew of Senior Counsel had appeared in the matter. Senior Advocate Fali S Nariman appeared for Alok Verma, while Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave represented Common Cause. Attorney General KK Venugopal appeared for the Union of India, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). ASG PS Narasimha appeared for CBI.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Rajeev Dhavan and Kapil Sibal were also allowed to argue as officers of the Court, though they were appearing for Rakesh Asthana, AK Bassi and Mallikarjun Kharge respectively.

This case reached the Supreme Court in October 2018 after the Centre sent Alok Verma on leave, effectively divesting him of his powers as the Director of the CBI. The DoPT and the CVC issued notices in a midnight move on October 29 announcing this decision.

Through the same notice, the Centre also divested CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana of his powers. This unprecedented move came in the wake of infighting between Verma and Asthana.

The agency, under Verma, had registered an FIR against Asthana in a bribery case based on a whistleblower’s account. The concerned case involved the meat exporter Moin Qureshi. However, in the same case, Asthana had alleged bribery on Verma’s part prior to the lodging of the FIR.

Asthana approached the Delhi High Court for quashing of the FIR against him. This was immediately followed by the Centre’s decision of ousting both Verma and Asthana, which came to be challenged in the Supreme Court by Verma.

The Supreme Court, after hearing all the parties, had reserved its judgment on December 6.