CBI vs CBI: SC furious over purported leak of Verma's reply, publication of Sinha's allegations

The Supreme Court was Tuesday furious over the purported leak of CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma's reply to the CVC's findings against him over corruption allegations as also the sensational charges by the agency's DIG Manish Kumar Sinha being made public, telling lawyers none of the parties "deserved" any hearing.

Making it clear that the court was not a "platform" where people can come and express "whatever they want", an anguished bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi heard the matter twice during the day and said it would not hear any party including the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and confine itself to the purported leak and publication of Sinha's allegations.

The bench, also comprising justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, vent its ire at the start of the hearing and reminded the parties that its earlier order asking them to maintain confidentiality of the CVC's preliminary inquiry report and Verma's response to it was intended to ensure "respect" and the integrity of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI)
As the hearing commenced, the bench referred to an article published by a news portal and solicited response from senior advocate Fali S Nariman, representing Verma, by saying, "It is only for you Mr Nariman and not as a counsel for Alok Verma. We have given this to you as you are one of the most respected and senior member of the institution. Please help us."
Meanwhile, the web portal, in its tweet, said, "This is to clarify that @thewire_in stories were on Alok Verma's responses to questions the CVC put to him. These were not in a sealed cover and were not meant for the SC. As for his response to CVC's final report, handed over to SC in sealed cover, we haven't seen/reported that."
When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CVC, stood up to argue, the bench tersely told him, "We will not hear anything. We will not hear anybody."
The bench then told Nariman about the news articles on Sinha's plea and said, "This is yesterday's article. We want to know what is going on. This court is not a platform for people to come and express whatever they want. This is a place where people come for adjudication of their legal rights. This is not a platform and we will set it right."