Supreme Court to hear plea of CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma on December 5

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Kumar Verma's plea against government's decision to divest him of duties and send him on leave is underway till December 5. The Top Court has asked the CBI to keep a record of all transfers made after Alok Verma was divested of his duties. Early in the day, Senior advocate Fali S Nariman appeared for Verma before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph which had on November 20 expressed deep anguish over the purported leak of the CBI director's response to the CVC's findings against him.

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The bench also took offence over the publication of allegations levelled by CBI DIG Manoj Kumar Sinha in his separate plea. At the outset, Nariman said the court cannot prohibit publication of the content of the petition as Article 19 of the Constitution is paramount and added, "If I file something tomorrow in the Registry then it can be published." He also referred to the top court's 2012 judgment in a case on the issue. He added that if the top court later prohibits then the matter cannot be published.

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The Supreme Court said that the CBI Director has not been given a clean chit in the vigilance report. The report is "complimentary on some charges, not-so-complimentary on some charges and very uncomplimentary on some charges," the court told Verma. Fali Nariman told the court that the government's order stripping Alok Verma of charges had no basis. "The CBI director can be removed only with the approval of a committee," Nariman said, adding that a "government order cannot stand in the absence of permission from the committee".