New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court over the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the interim director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The PIL was filed by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of Common Cause NGO. Significantly, Asthana would succeed Anil Sinha who retired on December 2.
What petition is all about?
- The government has deliberately appointed a Gujarat cadre officer to head CBI.
- Whereas the top candidate, CBI Special Director RK Dutta, who was elected on the merits, was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as a Special Secretary.
- According to Supreme Court's guidelines, CBI Director's appointment is made in a meeting of the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India (CJI), which hasn't been followed this time.
- So, the appointment should be cancelled.
What the PIL further claims?
- Gujarat cadre's 1984-batch senior IPS officer Rakesh Asthana shares close bonding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah.
- Rakesh Asthana, who has earlier served as the IG of Vadodara Range, had done the initial probe of the Godhra train burning incident.