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‘What’s going on’: Top Court bristles at reports on CBI officer’s petition

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Nov 20, 2018 01:59 PM IST

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was hearing a petition of ousted CBI director Alok Verma on Tuesday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, while hearing ousted CBI director Alok Verma’s petition on Tuesday, took exception to media reports on the CBI officer Manish Kumar Sinha’s sensational claims in a petition filed yesterday.

“We want to know what is going on,” Chief Justice Gogoi said.

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“This court is not a platform for people to come and express what they want... This is a place where adjudication of legal rights takes place and we intend to set it right,” the top judge said after senior lawyer Fali Nariman clarified that the inquiry report against Verma had not leaked as was believed earlier in the day.

But Chief Justice Gogoi pointed to the widely-reported details from the petition filed by Manish Kumar Sinha, a CBI officer who was shunted out of the agency.

Sinha was one of the officers transferred on October 24, within hours of Centre asking CBI director Alok Verma and Ramesh Asthana to proceed on leave until further orders. The two officers have accused each other of being corrupt — Asthana through a complaint to the cabinet secretary in August and Verma through an FIR filed by CBI against Asthana in October.

In his petition against his sudden transfer to Nagpur, Sinha had levelled charges against high-ranking government officials, two of his seniors, a minister, even the country’s top vigilance officer.

Sinha’s lawyer Sunil Fernandes had yesterday attempted to mention the petition before Chief Justice Gogoi to fast track hearing against the transfer and declared that he had “shocking revelations” to make. “Nothing shocks us,” the bench shot back.

Chief Justice Gogoi recalled that the court had declined the request and said the highest degree of confidentiality should be maintained.

“And this litigant (referring to Sinha) gives it (copy of petition) to everybody. Our effort is to maintain respect for the institution is not being respected,” Chief Justice Gogoi said.

This morning when the Supreme Court first took up Alok Verma petition against his removal from the CBI director’s post, there was a bit of a misunderstanding. Nariman had given the bench a copy of a media report, which the court apparently believed was based on a leak of the Central Vigilance Commission inquiry report against Alok Verma.

“None of you deserve a hearing,” Chief Justice Gogoi, miffed that the inquiry report had leaked, said and shared a copy with Nariman, a noted jurist who is representing Alok Verma.

The case was adjourned to November 29.

Nariman later went back to the court to clarify that the media report was not based on the CVC report but his response to the questions raised by the commission during its inquiry.

The Supreme Court had last week asked CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma to file his response “as quickly as possible” on findings of the CVC’s preliminary probe report on corruption charges against him and made it clear that it will not adjourn the scheduled hearing on Tuesday.

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