New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Friday told CBI Director Alok Verma to respond to the Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) inquiry report on allegations of corruption brought against him.
The allegations were levelled by his deputy, Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
Describing the CVC report as "exhaustive, accompanied with annexure", a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Krishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph said, "The CVC report is very complimentary on some charges, not so complimentary on others and very uncomplimentary in some areas and says some more investigation may be required."
The court directed that the CVC report should be given to senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for Alok Verma.
"We are of the view that, at this stage, and before taking any decision thereon, a copy of the report of the CVC (along with annexures thereto) should be furnished in a sealed cover to the counsel appearing for the petitioner, Alok Kumar Verma".
The court said the response by Verma, too, would be in a sealed cover.
The court said this was needed to preserve and maintain the sanctity of the institution of the CBI and public confidence in the said institution.
Senior counsel Fali Nariman said his side would be filing their response by Monday (November 19), the court directed the next hearing on November 20.
However, the court made it clear that its decision to share confidential CVC report with CBI Director Alok Verma was being made in the "peculiar facts of the case and as a one-time measure."
Though the copies of the CVC reports were also made available to the Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the court made it clear that the Centre need not file any response to the same.
"At this stage, we are not inclined to call upon either the Union of India or any other party to submit any response/reply to the said report of the CVC and the only response the Court is permitting is that of Alok Kumar Verma", the order said.
The court also directed the report given to the counsel for Alok Verma, Attorney General and Solicitor General in the "sealed cover would be treated with utmost confidentiality."
The court today deferred taking a call on examining decisions taken by the Acting Director M. Nageswara Rao, who took over on October 23. The court had on October 26 directed him to limit his functioning to necessary routine work of the agency.
The court had also directed that a list of decisions taken by Rao "between October 23 and upto this hour" including decisions on transfer of investigations, change of Investigating Officer(s) will be furnished to the Court in a sealed cover.
On Friday the court said: "It will be open to any party to supplement the said list" furnished by the investigating agency on the decisions taken by the officiating director Rao.