CBI chief appointment: CJI’s citing of “rule of law” puts Rakesh Asthana and YC Modi out of race

Two 1984-batch officers, YC Modi of Assam-Meghalaya cadre and Rakesh Asthana of the Gujarat cadre, are being ruled out for the position of the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director following a guideline cited by the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana.

Asthana and Modi – both frontrunners to the highly coveted post – are being considered out of the race after CJI NV Ramana cited a Supreme Court guideline on appointment of police chiefs in the Prakash Singh case of March 2019 that said no officer with less than six months to retirement should be appointed for the post.

YC Modi is currently the chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and retires at the end of this month. Rakesh Asthana, currently BSF chief, retires in July. Both have served many years in the CBI. Three choices made by the Prime Minister-led Selection Committee (CJI Ramana and Leader of Opposition Adhir Chaudhary being the other two members) on Monday included CISF chief Subodh Jaiswal, SSB DG KR Chandra and Special Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) VSK Kaumudi. Of 109 officers whose list was given to the committee to choose from, these were the only centrally empanelled officers who had more than six months to retirement.

Chandra will retire in December this year, Jaiswal will retire in September 2022 and Kaumudi has retirement due on November 30, 2022. Jaiswal is the senior-most among the three officers.