Supreme Court reinstates Alok Verma as CBI director, says he should ‘cease and desist from major policy decisions’

The Supreme Court has set aside the government order which divested Alok Verma of his powers as CBI director. The court, however, said, “Alok Verma shall cease and desist from taking any major policy decision until the Committee takes a decision.”

The government had argued that Verma and deputy director Rakesh Asthana had been sent on leave because “they were fighting like kilkenny cats”.

In December, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had said, “If you had tolerated since July, it is not something that required immediate action as the circumstances were culminating for a long time … Government has to be fair, what was the difficulty in consulting the selection committee before divesting Alok Verma of his power? Essence of every government action should be to adopt the best course.”