Upset over an alleged leak of vigilance documents to media, the Supreme Court on Tuesday abruptly adjourned a hearing on exiled CBI Director Alok Verma’s petition.
“We don’t think anyone of you deserves a hearing,” Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said while deferring the case to November 29. “Yesterday we refused the mentioning and we expressed that the highest degree of confidentiality will be maintained, but for some strange reason papers were taken away and given to everyone,” said a fumed CJI.
In an attempt to clarify on the alleged leak of documents, Alok Verma’s Counsel Fali Nariman said the article that was published was Verma’s reply to CVC during the inquiry and not the reply filed in the Supreme Court. Nariman told the court that the article was of November 17 and Alok Verma filed the reply on the CVC report in court on November 19.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had filed its preliminary probe report on the CBI chief in a sealed cover in the Supreme Court, which was then handed over to Alok Verma by the apex court to file his response.
Alok Verma on Monday filed in the Supreme Court his response on findings of the CVC’s preliminary probe report on corruption charges against him in a sealed cover.
The Supreme Court earlier on Saturday observed that the probe report submitted by the Central Vigilance Commission has given “mixed” findings and some charges needed to be investigated further.
Summarising the CVC findings, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “the report can be categorised in four; very complimentary on some charges; not so on others; very uncomplimentary on some charges and some charges require further investigation”. The apex court, however, had refused to hand over the inquiry report to CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
The apex court is hearing Verma’s plea against the government for divesting him of his duties and sending him on leave following an ongoing spat between the top officials.
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