Alok Verma Case: Who is AK Patnaik, the man who will oversee probe

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its investigation into allegations raised against Alok Verma within two weeks after the CBI Director challenged the government's decision to force him to go on leave and appointed M Nageshwar Rao as the interim director. The court appointed retired Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik to oversee the inquiry.

Who is AK Patnaik?

# AK Patnaik was once a member of a constitution bench that is credited with giving new wings to the "caged parrot" by scrapping the need for the agency to take the government's permission for acting against senior officers.

# The provision Section 6 (a) was inserted in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, which governs the CBI, in 2003 during the regime of the NDA led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This made it compulsory for the CBI to take permission of the government to initiate any enquiry or investigation against officials of the rank of joint secretary or above. 

#Patnaik was born in 1949 in Orissa. He had joined Supreme Court in 2009 where he gave some remarkable judgments during his five-year tenure.

# He was superseded five times during 2007-09 before his elevation to the apex court on November 17, 2009.Patnaik, as chief justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, was also a member of 'In-House committee' of the Supreme Court that probed allegations against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court.

# He was part of the two-member Supreme Court bench which had commuted the death sentence of the American Centre attack mastermind Aftab Ansari and Jamulludin Nasir.

# Patnaik was also the member of bench which had acquitted six accused in the 2002 Akshardham temple attack in Ahmedabad.

# A bench led by Patnaik had powerful BCCI Chief N Srinivasan to step down in order to ensure a fair probe in IPL fixing allegations.

# He was also made part of a two-judge bench to hear all cases related to the 2G scam. 

(With PTI inputs)