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Can Alok Verma File a Preliminary Enquiry Into Rafale? Most Evidence Points To Yes

The prohibition from taking ‘major policy decisions’ appears to be very limited one.

By Mitali Agrawal
Alok Verma Rafale

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 8 reinstated CBI Director Alok Verma, ruling that the Central government did not have the power to remove him. The court also said that Verma cannot take any major policy decisions till the high-powered committee gives its decision on the basis of the findings of the CVC inquiry against Verma.

However, a perusal of precedent tells us that the prohibition is limited in nature and should not prevent Verma from initiating a preliminary enquiry(PE) into the Rafale deal.

When Verma was sent on leave by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a midnight coup on October 23, 2018, he was investigating several crucial cases. One of these was the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. The verification process of the complaint filed by former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan was on-going. It is widely speculated that this prompted the Narendra Modi government to hastily strip the CBI director of his powers, and appoint M Nageswara Rao as interim chief.

After Verma challenged the PMO’s decision, the SC in its order dated October 26, barred Rao from taking ‘any policy decisions’. “M Nageswar Rao who has been entrusted with the task of looking after the duties of the Director of the CBI by the impugned order dated October 23, 2018 of the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, shall, as of from now, not take any policy decision(s) or any major decision(s) and will only perform the routine tasks that are essential to keep the CBI functional,” the court had aid.

The court had clearly stipulated that Rao’s duties were limited to only routine tasks essential to keep CBI ‘functional’. Rao took various decisions during his tenure, which presumably do not come under the ambit of ‘any policy decisions’. These include transfer of CBI officers probing Rakesh Asthana, changing the investigating officer in the case, ordering a closure report in a corruption case and more recently, filing an FIR against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in an illegal mining case.

In its January 8 order reinstating Verma, the court has written, “We further make it explicit that the role of the Petitioner Shri Alok Kumar Verma as the Director, CBI during the interregnum and in terms of this order will be confined only to the exercise of the ongoing routine functions without any fresh initiative, having no major policy or institutional implications.” The stipulation of ‘routine functions’, considering the decisions taken by Rao, should not prohibit Verma from taking similar decisions.

Additionally, while Rao was prohibited from taking ‘any policy decisions‘, in Verma’s case, court has limited his powers to exclude only those decisions that have ‘major policy or institutional implications‘. This indicates that the prohibition in Rao’s case was a more wide-reaching one than Verma’s.

Journalist Rohini Singh observed that by taking the aforementioned decisions, the ‘precedent’ had been set by Rao and that Verma would be able to start a PE in Rafale

In a similar note, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan wrote on Twitter that even though the Supreme Court has barred Verma from taking major policy decisions, it will not prevent the CBI director from ordering registration of FIRs.

Award-winning journalist and political commentator Swati Chaturvedi has also said that Verma will most likely order a PE in the Rafale Scam. In an article for NC24x7, Chaturvedi writes that a senior CBI official said that Verma, “the legally appointed director” can order PEs considering the “illegally hoisted director (a reference to Rao)” has ordered multiple ones.

Also Read: Alok Verma Back Despite Doval, Jaitley & Modi. Time for a Proper Investigation Into Rafale

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