The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Union government and IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal following a plea challenging the latter’s appointment as the CBI director.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M. S. Karnik directed the respondent agencies and Mr. Jaiswal to file their replies to the plea by July 18.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by Rajendra Trivedi, former ACP of the Maharashtra Police.
On Thursday, Mr. Trivedi’s advocate S. B. Talekar also submitted an affidavit, stating that a private complaint of defamation was filed against Mr. Jaiswal in 2012 and a magistrate’s court in the city had taken its cognisance and issued a process against him. The matter was pending hearing, Advocate Talekar said.
The HC took the affidavit on record. It will hear the matter further on July 28.
Mr. Jaiswal, who had earlier held the post of Maharashtra's Director General of Police (DGP), was appointed as the CBI director in May last year.
In his plea, filed through Advocate Talekar, Mr. Trivedi has sought that Mr. Jaiswal's appointment as the CBI director be quashed.
Mr. Trivedi in his plea claimed Mr. Jaiswal’s appointment was in contravention of the Delhi Police Establishment Act, and sought that the high court call for the records and proceedings of the three-member committee that had approved Mr. Jaiswal’s candidature.
The petition stated that the CBI director must necessarily be the senior most Indian Police Service (IPS) officer with “impeccable and unbreachable credibility” and an experience in investigation of anti-corruption cases.
It said that Mr. Jaiswal, during his tenure as a police officer, had never been attached to any anti-corruption wing and hence, did not possess the requisite experience required under the Act.
The petition also stated that in 2002, a special investigation team (SIT), headed by Mr. Jaiswal, who was then a Deputy Inspector General, was set up to investigate a fake and counterfeit stamps case, in reference to the Telgi case.
The plea said that strictures were passed against Mr. Jaiswal by the Supreme Court in the case and it was transferred to the CBI.
The petition further said the apex court’s observations had not been withdrawn or expunged till date.
