By Sushil Kutty
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi Tuesday spoke of a ‘platform’ some people are using to air their views and that not every Tom, Dick or Harry should be given one to use or misuse. Most people who commute by the Metro do use the platform but the Supreme Court was talking of a stage or an opportunity given to someone to make a stand. “None of you deserve a hearing,” he told petitioners in the Alok Verma reinstatement case.
The CJI was incensed that somebody had leaked the contents of the sealed CVC letter submitted to the Supreme Court by the government regarding CBI Director Alok Verma’s leave. The top court in its wisdom gave a copy of the sealed letter to the counsel of Verma and the next thing you know the contents were wired and splashed all over a net news portal for every Tom, Dick and Harry to comment, accept or rip apart.
Somewhat like Dr Ford’s letter on Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court to Senator Diane Feinstein, which was leaked to the Washington Post. “Who?” asked the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Feinstein replied, “Don’t know!” Nobody believed her but, what the hell, nothing could be done. The CVC letter leak can be pinpointed to the exact person; you need not look no further than to Verma’s counsel’s office.
CJI Gogoi was not amused and he made it plain to senior counsel Fali Nariman, stating to his face, “None of you deserve a hearing.” And then saying, “Next date hearing, November 29.” Whether that is going to discipline those given charge of politically sensitive documents by the top court is anybody’s guess, but the news portal cannot be taken to task nor asked to reveal the source though a United States court had sent a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist to jail for refusing to reveal source.
So, if CJI Gogoi wrings the wire around the news portal’s neck, the sordid leaker will be forced to come up for air, i.e., come clean. So, just you wait and see. A journalist, who turned politician and is now neither of the two, told a normally nonplussed but this one time an excited anchor, “Nothing doing, the Supreme Court is not a holy cow.” That made BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra bob his head in furious denial. However, he stopped short of calling it blasphemy, the correct word being contempt!
The leak has been laid at the door of a “lobby” and the lobby is like the platform though not quite. Citizens have been hearing a lot about this “lobby” and how its sole task is to see the back of Prime Minister Modi ASAP. This “lobby” is different from the platform in that it comprises of people with eyes and ears and leaks like a sieve. It’s a media creation. When CJI Ranjan Gogoi was not CJI and four senor-most judges had held a presser, they were alleged to be part of the “lobby”. Today, the same “lobby” is allegedly working against the CJI!
Is it a gotcha moment? We don’t know but if you watch two television news channels, chances are both will have a different view on any subject for the simple reason that one toes the government line and the other bats for the opposition. Both, of course, are accusing different lobbies. In the instant case of CVC-Verma, the impression being spread by a section of the media is that the Supreme Court bench hearing the case will most likely rule against the sent-on-leave CBI Director.
And some in the media have already judged against Verma and are asking the top court to send him packing with “disgrace” for allegedly failing to protect the integrity of the CBI, which was why he was appointed in the first place, his sworn duty. “Verma should be allowed to retire in disgrace rather than retake office. In fact, it might be quite in order for the collegium to convene and dismiss him for the simple fact of allowing himself to be leader of one vicious faction of the CBI against another rather be leader of the entire institution,” wrote a news portal.
According to the news portal, “Alok Verma should not be allowed to set foot in the CBI headquarters ever again.” Doesn’t matter which way the Supreme Court ruled on November 29. “Verma has simply lost the moral authority to run the CBI, an institution of public trust. As the head of the country’s federal investigation agency it is his job to preserve the integrity of the institution. He has instead participated fully in achieving the opposite: besmirching the image of the institution further.”
Compared to Verma, Special Director Rakesh Asthana gets a long rope. The portal acknowledged that the Special Director was also “responsible for betraying the trust of the public”, but there was a difference: “It’s only the CBI Director who has a fixed two-year tenure and the Supreme Court has given this ‘suraksha kavach’ only to him. The bottom-line is some media has already judged the CBI Director Alok Verma guilty, ahead of the Supreme Court taking a decision. (IPA Service)
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