Will take decision on monitoring of probe on 24th; SC frowns at HC wanting to wash its hand off the inquiry.
New Delhi : In a much anticipated move, the Supreme Court has transferred all the cases related to the Vyapam scam and the suspicious deaths to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The CBI has been asked to get cracking and file its initial report in the next hearing on July 24, after which the apex court will decide on the plea that it should monitor the probe. The scam was so far being probed by a state government-appointed Special Investigation Team, which has been accused by the petitioners of doing a shoddy job of cover-up.
A bench headed by chief justice H L Dattu passed the order on a petition filed by Congress leader Digvijay Singh, after the attorney general Mukul Rohatgi informed the court about the Madhya Pradesh government’s request to transfer the cases to CBI.
In its order, the court said: “The AG on instructions says that the state of Madhya Pradesh has no objection whatsoever to transferring investigation into criminal cases related to Vyapam scam to the CBI and also the cases related to the deaths of the persons…for fair and impartial investigation. We appreciate the stand of the attorney general and …. In view of the above, we transfer investigation of criminal cases relating to Vyapam scam and the deaths to the CBI from Monday.”
The Chief Justice, however, frowned at the Madhya Pradesh High Court for lobbing the case to the Apex Court instead of acting on the state government’s plea to hand over the probe to the CBI. “The High Court wants to wash its hand off the CBI enquiry. It could have done something. Instead, they pushed the ball in our lap,” Dattu said.
When senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi and Vivek Tankha were assailing the procedure adopted in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the bench interrupted them by saying that the Apex Court is passing an order, how could then the High Court proceed in the matter?
“Once CBI comes into the picture, can HC proceed? Obviously no,” the bench observed.
The apex court had four petitions listed before it and it de-tagged all of them. The order for the CBI probe was passed on Digvijay Singh’s petition. On the petitions of two whistleblowers — Ashish Kumar Chaturvedi and Prashant Pandey — a notice was issued and these will be taken up for hearing next week. Advocate Pra-shant Bhushan appeared for Pandey. Among the battery of lawyers who appeared for the petitioners were Advocates Varun Chopra and Vaibhav Shrivastava.
I welcome it wholeheartedly. There was a burden on my heart. The MP government should get credit for investigating the case and cleaning the system – MP chief minister Shivraj Chauhan
