Justice Ramana has withdrawn from hearing the petition filed to challenge the appointment of Nageswara Rao as the interim Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief stating that he ‘went to his daughter’s wedding’. He is the third Supreme Court judge to have recused himself from the case.
Stating that Nageswara Rao is from his ‘home state’ whose daughter’s wedding he has attended, Justice Ramana joins Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice AK Sikri who had earlier withdrawn from the case. Responding to senior lawyer Dushyant Dave’s plea to ‘request’ Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to constitute a bench for the ‘early hearing’ of the case, Justice Ramana stated that it was for the ‘registry to list the petition’.
After the controversial removal of Alok Verma as per government orders, Nageswara Rao had been appointed as the interim CBI chief by the Modi government on October 23 last year. A petition was filed by the NGO – Common Cause challenging Rao’s appointment. The petition pleaded that the process of shortlisting, selecting and appointing the CBI chief should remain a transparent process. In violation of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPE Act), the current appointment of Nageswara Rao has been described to be ‘illegal, arbitrary’ and ‘malafide’ by the petition.
Chief Justice of Indian Ranjan Gogoi had also withdrawn from the case stating that he was a part of the high-powered selection committee led by the Prime Minister set to select the next CBI chief. Later, the Chief Justice dropped out and Justice Sikri replaced him in the selection committee. When Justice Sikri withdrew from the case, it was described to be sending out a ‘wrong message’ by the petitioner. The petitioner’s lawyer Dushyant Dave further added that it seems like the court does not ‘want to hear the case’. While it acted with great promptness when it came to the removal of Alok Verma from office, when it comes to hearing the petition against the new appointment, the court does not seem ‘inclined to hear’, the petitioner’s lawyer said in court.
