The aftershocks of the CBI vs CBI saga continues to rumble on, after it appears that the Modi government may have misled the Supreme Court regarding the appointment of M Nageshwar Rao as interim director of the CBI.
Rao had been appointed as interim director on 10 January, on the same day the High Powered Committee had directed the removal of former director Alok Verma. The appointment of the interim director was challenged by NGO Common Cause and RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj in the Supreme Court, which conducted a hearing on Friday, 1 February.
Even before the first hearing, the case had attracted controversy after CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice AK Sikri and then Justice NV Ramana had recused themselves from it. While the first two judges had recused themselves because they had heard Alok Verma’s petition and been part of the High Powered Committee respectively, Justice Ramana recused himself because he knew Rao and had attended his daughter’s wedding.
The challenge to Nageshwar Rao’s appointment was finally listed before Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Navin Sinha on Friday. The judges questioned the Central Government (represented by Attorney General KK Venugopal) on why a new director had not yet been appointed, and noted that the appointment of an interim director was only meant to be on an ad hoc basis.