The Supreme Court has stayed the unprecedented Guahati High Court order which said the CBI is "unconstitutional" and does not have the powers to investigate crimes. The top court has also served notices to the Home Ministry and the CBI seeking their response on the High Court ruling.
Here are the latest developments:
The Supreme Court has stayed the Gauhati High Court order which on Wednesday had declared the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI unconstitutional. The top court has fixed December 6 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The Centre, in its appeal, had called the order "erroneous", arguing that the investigating agency, formed in 1963 under a provision of the Delhi Police Special Establishment Act of 1946, has stood the test of time.
The Gauhati High Court erred in its judgment which may have widespread ramifications, the Centre said in its petition, adding that the order would directly impact over 9000 trials and 1000 investigations being conducted by the CBI.
"The CBI has been functioning effectively and has a staff of about 6000 people all of whom are engaged in the investigation and prosecution of various cases... it is absolutely necessary in the interests of justice and convenience that immediate ad-interim orders be granted staying the said judgment," the Centre's petition in the top court said.
The government's main investigating agency stands to lose its powers to probe, file FIRs or First Information Reports, arrest suspects and file charge-sheets after the Gauhati High Court said on Wednesday that the CBI cannot be treated as a police force; it can only conduct "inquiries".
Union minister V Narayansamy held a series of meetings on Friday with CBI director Ranjit Sinha and law officials after the High Court order. Mr Sinha and his team also met Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati after which the content of the petition was finalised, sources said.
The High Court's order came on a petition challenging a CBI chargesheet on a Mahanagar Telephone Nigam employee, which ended up questioning the validity of the agency for the first time in its 50-year existence.
The judges said the Union Home Ministry order under which the CBI was set up in 1963 was invalid as police investigations are under a state's purview. The Centre's resolution, they noted, was not even sent to the President and never received his assent.
Citing the Gauhati High Court order, some of the accused in the 2G spectrum scam, including former telecom minister A Raja, on Friday sought a stay on the CBI trial against them. (Read)
Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who has been named by the CBI in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, too has asked a Delhi court to declare as "illegal" the probe and chargesheets filed against him. (Read)
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