NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday commenced hearing on the petition filed by CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma challenging the decision of the Centre to divest him of his duties and sending him on leave. Hearing the petition of CBI Director Alok Verma, the Supreme Court today ordered the Central Vigilance Commission to complete the probe into the allegations against director Verma within two weeks.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph is hearing the plea.
Senior advocate F S Nariman is advancing arguments on behalf of the CBI chief.
The counsel submitted that the CBI Director was appointed with the approval of a selection panel having the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
Nariman referred to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Centre's orders divesting Verma of his duty. He also cited the Vineet Narain judgment to support Verma's pleas.
Verma has also sought stay of the Centre's order asking him to proceed on leave and giving the interim charge of his post to Joint Director M Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer.

With the bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi slated to hear in the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon the petition moved by Alok Kumar Verma against him being divested of powers as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director, the agency clarified on Thursday that Verma will continue to be its chief.
A CBI spokesperson said Verma will remain the director and Rakesh Asthana the special director. The spokesperson said M Nageshwar Rao has been given interim charge till the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) looks into allegations and counter allegations of Verma and Asthana against each other.
Drama unfolded on Thursday as four Intelligence Bureau officers “found loitering outside” Verma’s official bungalow in Lutyens Delhi were detained by guards at the CBI chief’s house. The Congress accused the Centre resorting to "snooping" on Verma to "cover-up" the Rafale ‘scam’. Later, the Delhi Police denied detaining four men, and the IB said they were at the spot as part of the agency’s standard operating procedure of keeping watch in the high security zone.

On Wednesday, a government statement had accused Verma of “willful obstruction” in the functioning of the CVC, which was looking into complaints of corruption against him. It also said the CVC invoked its powers (under Section 8 of the CVC Act, 2003) of superintendence over the functioning of the DPSE (CBI), in so far as it related to the investigation of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Opposition parties, including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M K Stalin, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan alleged there were pending corruption cases against Rao, too.

Apart from the CJI, other judges on the bench are Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph. All the judges are new to their respective posts and Joseph is the junior most in the team after his elevation was resisted by the government for several months. Verma’s writ petition is listed as item No 41, which is likely to be taken up by noon.

Immediately after that, a public interest petition by Common Cause is listed before the same bench. Bhushan will argue the case, which raises issues related to the functioning of CBI. The petition has named Verma, Asthana, the CVC, CBI and the central government as respondents. Both petitions are coming up for the first time. Bhushan’s petition was filed on Wednesday after the midnight drama before the CBI headquarters. Therefore, the lawyer is likely to raise the order which keeps the top two away from work, and the appointment of Rao as the interim chief.