SC to hear Verma's plea against Centre's decision to divest him of powers as CBI head

The unprecedented internal feud between CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana reached the Supreme Court Wednesday which agreed to hear on October 26 the former's plea assailing the Centre's decision to divest him of duties and sending him on leave.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who has set tough standards for cases being listed for urgent hearing, considered the submissions of advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for Verma, that the plea needed urgent hearing as besides sending the agency's chief and the Special Director on leave, several officers probing sensitive cases have been changed.

"Friday," the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, told the lawyer who also referred to the fact that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) took the decision at 6 AM today to divest Verma of his duties.

The CBI chief, who later in the day filed the plea in the apex court registry, said there was a need for an independent probe agency as there are bound to be occasions when certain investigations into high functionaries do not take the direction that may be desirable to the government.

Verma has assailed the decision of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) by which Joint Director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, has been given the charge as head of the probe agency.

The feud between Verma and Asthana escalated in recently leading to registration of an FIR against Asthana and others including Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar, who is presently in CBI's custody, in an alleged bribery case.

The FIR was lodged on a written complaint of Satish Babu Sana on October 15. It alleged that Kumar, the IO in a case, was repeatedly calling him to the CBI office to harass and compel him to pay bribe of Rs 5 crore for giving him clean chit.

Asthana and Kumar both challenged the FIR in the Delhi High Court, which on Tuesday ordered CBI to maintain status quo on the criminal proceedings against Asthana.

The Centre, the CVC and the DoPT intervened and decided to send the CBI Director and the Special Director on leave.

The CBI Director took the fight to the apex court today by filing the plea challenging the government's decison.

The plea said the decision taken "overnight" by the Centre and the CVC to divest him of his role as the head of the probe agency was "patently illegal" and such interference "erodes" the independence and autonomy of the institution.

"Over the recent past, although all functionaries within the CBI from the investigating officer and the superintending officers up to the Joint Director and the Director have agreed on a certain course of action, the Special Director has been of a different view," the plea said.

It alleged that "hurdles posed" by Asthana have now been compounded by his complicity in "concocting evidence" to impugn the reputation of Verma, leading to a separate FIR being registered by CBI which has been challenged by the special director in the Delhi High Court.