SC to hear plea challenging Asthana's appointment on Nov 24

The Supreme Court today said it would hear on November 24 a plea challenging the appointment of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as a special director of the CBI.
A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre initially said the plea would be heard on November 20 but deferred it by four days after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner-- NGO Common Cause-- wanted time to file some additional documents.
"I need to file additional affidavit to place some additional documents. So please fix it for next Friday," Bhushan told the court.
The bench agreed to the submission and posted the matter for hearing on November 24.

The plea has alleged that the decision to appoint Asthana was "illegal" and "arbitrary", and claimed the CBI was probing a matter in which Asthana's name had cropped up.
Demanding quashing of Asthana's appointment, the petitioner also sought a direction to the Centre to transfer him out of the agency during the pendency of investigation.
The petitioner claimed the government and the selection committee had overruled the opinion of the CBI Director while appointing Asthana "in violation of the law".
While seeking Asthana's ouster, the plea noted the special director was the second in command in the CBI after the director and supervised almost all important cases being handled by the agency.