November 29, 2018:

On Thursday, Supreme Court will take up a petition by ousted CBI chief Alok Verma seeking reinstatement .

He had been divested of all administrative powers in a midnight order on Oct 23 following an inter feud with his deputy Rakesh Asthana.

Top Court will hear two petitions – one by Alok Verma & the second by a non-profit organization Common Cause - on whether the move to strip the CBI director of his responsibilities was legal.

The controversy stems from a feud b/w director Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana, the agency’s two top officers who have accused each other of corruption.

Govt. has asked M Nageswar Rao, a 1986-batch Orissa cadre officer & the senior-most joint director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, to look after the duties & functions of the CBI director.

Verma, in his petition , has challenged the grounds on which he was sidelined and said the move was “patently illegal” and an attempt to undermine the federal agency’s independence.

The petition by Common Cause, filed by advocate Prasanth Bhushan, said the CVC’s Oct 23 recommendation by which Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) divested Verma of his powers were for “malafide reasons” and should be quashed.

The “chain of events shows that Verma is being victimized for taking action against Asthana, a Gujarat cadre officer, and also for entertaining complaint against the top functionaries of the present government,” stated the petition.

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