SC postpones plea challenging appointment of interim CBI chief; case to be heard on Monday

Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri on Thursday recused himself from hearing a plea challenging the Centre's decision to appoint M Nageswara Rao as interim CBI director.

A bench headed by Justice Sikri listed the matter for Monday for hearing before a different bench.

As soon as the matter came up for hearing, Justice Sikri told senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for petitioner NGO Common Cause, that he would not like to hear the matter and was recusing himself. "You understand my position. I can't hear this matter," Justice Sikri said.

Justice Sikri was part of the high powered panel which had removed CBI Director Alok Verma.

Pointing towards the delay in hearing the case, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, “The Chief Justice should not have listed the case in front of his own bench when would have recused himself and then later sent it to Justice Sikri’s bench. The case was filed more than a week ago and we had requested for an urgent hearing. Today the high-powered selection committee is meeting to select the new CBI chief. We wanted it to be heard before that. they have now adjourned the case for Monday.

One of the petitioners in the case, Anjali Bhardwaj said, “This is a problem. The Supreme Court has adjourned the matter again. In our plea we have stated that the process for the recruitment of the next CBI chief must be made transparent and the minutes of the last meeting where Alok Verma was removed as CBI Director be made public. Even Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge has said this.”

Bhardwaj went on to add that the high-powered committee was meeting on Thursday evening and they had hoped that the Supreme Court would hear the case before that.