Wednesday,when the Supreme Court takes up CBI Director Ranjit Sinhas affidavit on changes that he allowed the political executive and others to make in the crucial status report in the coal blocks allocation scam,his lawyer could have some explaining to do. For the nine-page affidavit doesnt share information that could have a bearing on the politically sensitive case.
Also,while answering the questions posed by the Bench upset at having been lied to when the CBI counsel claimed that the status report had not been shared with the political executive before it was filed in court in a sealed cover the Director has given ambivalent answers.
Since the issue that has led to the ongoing controversy and stalling of Parliament is why he showed the status report to Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and allowed him to make changes,some of them significant by his own admission,lets deal with only that.
His assertion that there is nothing in the CBI (Crime) Manual to guide whether status reports in respect of ongoing investigation in sub-judice matters are to be shared with others doesnt stand scrutiny.
A cursory reading of the many SC judgments on the issue shows why he shouldnt have shown the report to the Law Minister and others,leave aside allowing them to change it.
Investigations by any agency,including the CBI,are governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and it has been held that in case of conflict between the CBI Manual and the CrPC,the CrPC prevails. In the Vineet Narain case,the SC held that while the Central government has overall superintendence of the CBI,it couldnt be construed in a wider sense to permit supervision of the actual investigation of an offence by the CBI. Simply put: the Law Minister or anybody else had no business making changes to the status report.
In R Sarala versus T S Velu,the court has held that in no case is an investigating officer obliged to take opinion of a public prosecutor or any authority,except the superior officer as envisaged in CrPC.
Maneesh is a senior assistant editor based in New Delhi.
maneesh.chhibber@expressindia.com
