The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea filed by CBI officers seeking that the Group of Ministers (GoM) examining the issue of the agency’s autonomy be directed to refer to parliamentary panel reports on the CBI before making its recommendations.
A bench of justices B.S. Chauhan and Dipak Misra refused to hear the plea of a group of CBI cadre officers saying it cannot interfere in the functioning of the GoM. The petitioners moved the apex court to restrain the Centre from framing new rules for the appointment of officers against the recommendation of the parliamentary committees which have suggested building of a strong CBI cadre and to reduce dependence of deputation.
Noting that they cannot pass such an order, the judges said the officers can approach the bench, which is seized of the matter pertaining to filling up vacancies in the CBI, for redressal of their grievance. “We cannot pass such order of mandamus to the government. We cannot pre-empt ordinance,” the bench said, adding, “Propriety says that it should come before the same bench.”
The officers, in their petition, have questioned the government for setting up of the Group of Ministers (GoM) and not implementing the recommendations in parliamentary committee reports. They have submitted that the GoM must give them the opportunity to make representations before it. “Under the garb of the direction of this court, the government which has deliberately disregarded and failed to take into consideration various reports of parliamentary standing committees, has arbitrarily set up a GoM,” advocate Kamini Jaiswal, appearing for the CBI officers, said.
The petition has said, “Cadre officers have been deliberately kept away in the functioning of CBI as none of them in the last 50 years has even been appointed to any post in the organisation dealing with policy-making decision.”