CHENNAI: The Madras high court has issued notice to the Centre, on a quo warranto petition questioning the validity of the appointment of Ranjit Sinha as director of the CBI.
Justice K Venkataraman, before whom the petition filed by retired police officer Jebamani Mohanraj, came up for admission on Friday, asked the Centre to file its counter within a week.
When the matter was taken up for hearing, Manikandan Vathan Chettiar, counsel for the PIL-petitioner, submitted that an officer facing charges should not have been named the next head of the premier investigating agency.
Jebamani had said in the petition that Sinha had been unceremoniously removed from the fodder scam case by the Patna high court.
Opposing the petition and questioning its very maintainability, additional solicitor-general of India, P Wilson, said it had been based solely on newspaper reports. The appointment was made in accordance with law, he said adding that before the Cabinet committee on appointment cleared the name of Sinha, it was vetted by a committee.
Justice Venkataraman, however, said media reports need not be completely ignored and said merits of the issue could be considered after the Centre files it's counter in the matter.
As for Wilson's demand for deletion of an offending paragraph from the petition, the judge asked counsel if it could be deleted. To this Chettiar said the Centre must give reasons for seeking the deletion of averments.
CBI director's appointment: Madras HC issues notice to Centre
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CBI director's appointment: Madras HC issues notice to Centre
