NEW DELHI: Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the 2G case on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that CBI director Ranjit Sinha’s meeting with the accused involved in cases being probed by the agency was improper and amounted to criminal contempt, which should be looked into. The court, which was to hear the case on Thursday, will now hear it after Diwali, as the report filed by the SPP is yet to be studied.
SPP Anand Grover urged the court to recall its order on disclosing the identity of the whistleblower, who had leaked the documents including the guest list register to advocate Prashant Bhushan, saying it should not insist on the issue.
He said people had a right to know the CBI Director’s conduct as it did not pertain to his personal affairs and no law protects the confidentiality of information in the guest list register, which should be examined by the apex court. Grover said, “While the repeated meetings of the CBI Director and the representatives of the accused in 2G cases during the investigation and prosecution of the cases is definitely improper, it will have to be examined whether such acts amount to criminal contempt of court under the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 and they could prejudice, interfere or tend to interfere with the due course of judicial proceedings.” “Given that the CBI Director had his camp office located at his residence, the information contained in the Register does not pertain to his personal affairs and rather appears to be a record of his professional meetings conducted in his official capacity. The Official Secrets Act or any other statutory law does not protect the confidentiality of the information in the Register,” SPP said.