The Supreme Court on Friday turned down the plea of a group of CBI cadre officers who have demanded the Group of Ministers formed to examine autonomy for the premier investigating agency to also consider a Parliamentary panel that recommended a strong CBI cadre to be raised instead of officers being brought on deputation.
Refusing to examine the matter, the Vacation bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Dipak Misra felt that such an order could not be passed by it, particularly since they learnt that the matter relating to recruitment of officers in CBI was pending before another bench of the apex court. Moreover, the officers represented by advocate Kamini Jaiswal had demanded the Centre to be restrained from framing new rules for appointment of officers in the light of what the parliamentary committee recommended.
The bench said, “We cannot pass such order of mandamus to the government. We cannot pre-empt ordinance,” adding, “Propriety demands matter should go before the same bench.”
The CBI officers questioned the Government for setting up the Group of Ministers (GoM) while ignoring the report of the parliamentary panel. “Under the garb of the direction of this court, the Government has deliberately disregarded and failed to take into consideration various reports of parliamentary standing committees, and arbitrarily set up a GoM,” petition said. They had demanded an alternative right to be heard by the GoM by way of a representation.