NEW DELHI: A day after the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale pleas, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Friday said the apex court’s judgment is a binding on the CBI to investigate the matter and the government should grant permission for that.
Bhushan and former Union minister Arun Shourie — who along with former Union minister Yashwant Sinha had filed a plea last year alleging a scam in the deal and seeking registration of FIR in the matter — alleged that many grounds in the review petition had not been dealt with in the judgemnt.
To support his point, Bhushan referred to the separate judgment by Justice K M Joseph, one of the three judges on the bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi that gave the verdict.
In his separate but concurring judgment on Wednesday, Justice Joseph said the CBI, the country’s premier probe agency, is expected to act “completely independent” of the government of the day and show professionalism of “highest quality”, uncompromising independence and neutrality is expected of it.
“The CBI has to seek the permission of the government for probing the case and government should grant them the permission,” Bhushan said adding that if the CBI does not do so, it has to cite reasons for not probing the case. Shourie criticised the “self restraint” of the SC while adjudicating their petitions.