Top court sends notice to govt on PIL seeking regular CBI chief

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre seeking its response on a plea for appointment of a

regular CBI director

.


A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat agreed to hear a PIL filed by NGO ‘Common Cause’, pleading the court to direct the Centre to appoint a regular CBI director. It alleged that the government failed to appoint a regular director on the expiry of Rishi Kumar Shukla’s term on February 2. It said the government has instead appointed

Praveen Sinha

as its interim director. The petition, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, sought a direction to complete the process of selecting the CBI director at least one to two months before the date on which the vacancy is about to occur.

“The director of CBI is the final authority in the organisation. Hence, this court and later even

Parliament

have made determined efforts to enhance the functional autonomy of the CBI director and limit the extent of executive discretion in the matter of appointment of this functionary,” the petition said.

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