No officer should be under a "cloud", the Supreme Court said today, maintaining that the Centre was free to look into the "serious" charges against ED officer Rajeshwar Singh, probing the "highly sensitive" 2G spectrum allocation scam cases including the Aircel-Maxis deal.
A vacation bench of justices Arun Mishra and S K Kaul, which was of the view that the allegations levelled against Singh were serious and required to be looked into, said it will be the government's call whether he will have any role to play in further probe in the Aircel-Maxis case being investigated by him.
The apex court also modified its interim order granting protection to Singh against inquiry and referred to the Centre's affidavit which stated that it does not intend to protect anybody in the case.
During the hearing, the bench said "As a matter of fact, when there are allegations, whether right or wrong, against you (Singh), it has to be looked into.
"The other issue is that you should not be victimised. The third point is whether it would be appropriate for you to investigate when you are under a cloud and under investigation," the bench said.
"You are simply an officer. You can't be given a blanket clean chit. Everybody is accountable. You must be accountable for any action. We need to ensure that you are accountable. We don't want to damage you or comment against you. There are very serious allegations against you," it told the officer.
It said that "as a matter of fact, when there are allegations, whether right or wrong against you (Singh) it has to be looked into ... the things which have come before us are startling."
In the order, the bench said, "We direct that the government is free to look into the materials against respondent number 3 (Rajeshwar Singh) and the same can be looked into."
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