Apt reversal

Order restoring CBI director follows the letter of the law

In ordering the reinstatement of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director, Alok Verma, a three-member Bench of the Supreme Court has underlined the Union government's failure to observe institutional propriety. In an implied rebuke, the court also ordered the government to convene the selection committee within a week to consider Mr Verma’s status. The committee comprises the prime minister, the chief justice of India (who was a member of the three-judge Bench that unanimously passed Tuesday’s order) and the leader of the Opposition, in this case, Mallikarjun Kharge of the Indian National Congress. At one level, the order could