NEW DELHI: A furious Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday tore into the petitioners in the CBI leadership feud case for the purported leak of sensitive reports to the media and adjourned it to November 29 saying none of the parties deserved any hearing.
His anger stemmed from the alleged leak of CBI Director Alok Verma’s confidential reply to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which has been tasked by the court to investigate allegations against Verma by his deputy Rakesh Asthana. “Our effort was to make sure individual officers are protected and so we asked for confidentiality. But we don’t think any of you deserve a hearing,” the CJI fumed.
The CVC has filed its inquiry report in the court and Verma submitted his reply on Monday in a sealed cover. The court assumed it was this report that was leaked to the media. Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for Verma, first shared the court’s agony, but in a subsequent hearing clarified that the contents of the sealed envelope remain classified. What appeared in the media was Verma’s response to a CVC questionnaire sent during the process of inquiry and not the final report, he explained. The portal echoed him in its tweet.
But the bench refused to advance the hearing as one of the judges on the bench, Justice S K Kaul, will not be in the city for a few days. The bench also snapped at Verma’s lawyers squabbling over seeking more time for filing their response on Monday. “This court is not a platform for anybody to say anything they want. This is a place for adjudication of legal rights.”
Nariman had said he had not authorised Gopal Shankaranarayanan to seek more time on behalf of Verma on Monday. When Shankaranarayanan tried to put his point across, the CJI said: “We are prepared to hear Mr Nariman only. We want this place clear.”
The court was also disturbed to see extensive reportage of the contents of the petition filed by CBI DIG M K Sinha on Monday. In his 34-page petition, he had mad a series of allegations against biggies like the National Security Advisor and a Union minister.“Yesterday we refused the mentioning... We expressed that the highest degree of confidentiality be maintained but today we see the litigant has gone ahead and given everything to everybody,” the bench remarked.
Two hearings on the same case in a day
The day began with an angry CJI handing over a copy of the purportedly leaked Verma report published in the media to Nariman and adjourning the case to November 29. When Nariman realised the report was not what was presented to the court, he sought to clarify. The CJI let him do so after hearing all other cases