Alok verma’s return a political setback

Alok verma’s return a political setback

Verma holds the key to further embarrassment.

The Supreme Court order setting aside the restrictions placed on CBI director Alok Kumar Verma and reinstating him as the CBI director is a setback to the government. While the court did not go into the reasons that prompted the government to remove Verma as the functional head of India’s premier investigative agency, that is necessarily part of the public discourse on the subject. The government should clarify the matter, without waiting for the Opposition to press the point. The Supreme Court order has directed the government to place the question of Verma’s transfer before the committee that appointed him, comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice and the Leader of the Opposition or of the single-largest party in the Lok Sabha at the earliest.

Till the committee takes a decision, Verma has been restrainedfrom taking policy decisions. His role “will be confined only to the exercise of the ongoing routine functions without any fresh initiative, having no major policy or institutional implications”. Is initiating a probe into a corruption allegation a new initiative or a routine function of the CBI? If it is a routine function, nothing prevents the CBI director from starting an investigation that could possibly embarrass the government. Only a subsequent order by the court would check him, if he were to exercise his judgment as to what constitutes routine functions. The best course for the government is to seek an early meeting of the committee to consider his transfer: failure to do that would raise doubts about the bona fides of the original transfer decision. As of now, the court has only found absence of due process: failure to obtain the sanction of the committee before curtailing Verma’s role.

The Central Vigilance Commission’s inquiry into allegations against Alok Verma, whose findings are with the court, would appear not to be of the kind that disqualifies him from occupying his position. This would appear to further strengthen Verma. Much depends on what the officer wants to do in the remaining few days of his career as head of the CBI.