Sanjiv Chaturvedi in HC for contempt action against CBI

Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer, today moved a contempt plea in the Delhi High Court against the CBI for allegedly violating judicial orders that said the agency has no absolute exemption from disclosing information under the transparency law.
In his petition, which was listed before Justice V K Rao, Chaturvedi has contended that the high court ruling that CBI, and other such agencies, have to disclose information held by them pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations, was binding on them.
He has alleged that the high court orders were not being followed by the central public information officers (CPIO) of CBI as it denied him information he had sought regarding certain corruption cases at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In his petition filed through advocate Mehmood Pracha, the IFS officer has alleged that the CPIO of CBI denied him the information despite being aware of the high court rulings.
The court, however, said that Chaturvedi ought to have filed a writ petition against denial of information, instead of a contempt plea.
To this, Pracha argued that as the high court orders of August and September last year contained general directions that intelligence agencies have to disclose information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations held by them, not doing so amounted to contempt of court.
The court, thereafter, listed the matter for hearing on February 2 so that Chaturvedi can show judgements in support of his claim that contempt petitions can be filed in such situations.