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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Coalgate probe: SC livid, vows to rid CBI of all interference -Dhananjay Mahapatra

Coalgate probe: SC livid, vows to rid CBI of all interference -Dhananjay Mahapatra

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published Published on May 1, 2013   modified Modified on May 1, 2013
-The Times of India


The Supreme Court ripped apart the myth of CBI's autonomy on Tuesday by exposing that it was under the thumb of the government of the day. The apex court tore into the government for seeking to vet the CBI's status report to the SC on the Coalgate scam and subvert it.

The court didn't mince words while saying that the government's attempt to change the investigation status report and CBI's attempt to mislead the court on whether it had shared the report with anyone was tantamount to "a vital erosion of trust".

A three-member bench, comprising Justices R M Lodha, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, questioned the legal authority of law minister Ashwani Kumar and PMO and coal ministry officials to summon the draft CBI investigation status report. It said that the action of the minister and the PMO and the coal ministry has "shaken" the very foundation of an independent probe - an admonition which challenged the minister's argument that he was entitled to go through the contents of the status report.

The stinging observations which peppered the much-awaited hearing in the politically-charged case also put the spotlight on the CBI's autonomy with the SC vowing to free the investigating agency from any political and bureaucratic interference.

The bench said it would remain engaged with the case and would go into who all tampered the status report and for the benefit of whom. "If we find that the investigation has been influenced by someone who had no business to do so then the necessary inference is that the investigation is a farce. The case will then have to be investigated by either a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or some other method. Something will have to be done if it was done to shield someone. If that is found to be true, then it is very serious and the reaction will be very different," it said.

What is going to be equally embarrassing for the government and the CBI is the direction from the court to CBI director Ranjit Sinha to file an affidavit by Monday disclosing two facts - who made what changes at whose instance in the draft report and name the persons in addition to the law minister and officials who perused the draft report prior to its filing in the Supreme Court on March 8.

The court also asked the CBI to stop moving on the "crutches of the executive". The bench wanted to know why and on whose instructions additional solicitor general Harin Raval had lied to the court on March 12 that the probe status report was not shared with the political executive. It said if it had not nailed the lie by asking the CBI director to endorse the ASG's statement, things would have been pushed under the carpet.

It questioned the CBI's pliancy in rushing to the political executive and bureaucrats with draft status report and asked: "Show us from the CBI Manual or any law which authorizes a minister to summon probe status report prior to its submission to the court in a case which is pending judicial scrutiny."

The bench said Raval's lie has shifted the judicial focus on the coal scam and now its primary task was to make the CBI independent of political interference in letter and spirit and ensure it was free of all "external influence, intrusion and considerations".

On the CBI showing the draft report to law minister as per his desire, the bench gave a dressing down to the CBI and said: "May be somebody desired something but as investigating agency you know your role. You are the master of investigation and while investigating a matter, you have no masters be it for good or bad reasons."

"Does this not vitally erode the trust the court had reposed in the CBI? Are you not guided by the criminal procedure code? This (sharing of the probe status report with political executive) has shaken the very foundation of the investigation. This is a premier investigating agency and it has to do something that enhances its impartiality, credibility and independence," the court said.

It asked CBI's new counsel, senior advocate U U Lalit, Attorney General G E Vahanvati, and advocate for petitioners, Prashant Bhushan and M L Sharma, to suggest methods to insulate the CBI from every kind of interference and influence and restore the glory of the premier investigating agency.

When Lalit wanted to hand over a note detailing the changes made in the draft report, the court said it would no longer take notes on this issue after being misled by the law officer during the earlier hearing. The bench asked the Director to file an affidavit detailing the changes made in the draft report by the political executive.

The Judges also had a lurking doubt that more persons had vetted or read the probe report and asked the CBI director to name them in his fresh affidavit to be filed by Monday and posted the matter for hearing on May 8.


The Times of India, 1 May, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Coalgate-probe-SC-livid-vows-to-rid-CBI-of-all-interference/articleshow/19812917.cms


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