Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday issued a notice to the central government on public interest litigation filed by a retired assistant commissioner of Maharashtra police, challenging Subodh Kumar Jaiswal’s appointment as CBI director. The PIL claimed that Jaiswal was neither eligible nor had the requisite experience to hold the post.
The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Makarand Karnik was informed by advocate Satish Talekar for the petitioner, retired ACP Rajendra Trivedi, that Jaiswal’s appointment was in contravention of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and sought directions to call for the record and proceedings of the committee which approved his name as a candidate in May 2021.
Referring to various posts held by Jaiswal before being appointed as CBI director, the petition stated that he had never been part of any agency which investigated anti-corruption cases.
“The fact remains that respondent No. 3 (Jaiswal) was never attached to the anti-corruption wing of the police force, at any point of time. CBI being a premier anti-corruption agency, possession of experience in investigation of anti-corruption cases is a pre-requisite for being appointed as the Director of the CBI. Even otherwise, there is a statutory requirement of possessing such an experience,” the petition stated.
Jaiswal, who had earlier held the post of Maharashtra’s Director General of Police (DGP), was appointed as the CBI director in May last year.
The petition also referred to the observations made by the Supreme Court and the trial court on Jaiswal’s conduct in the investigation pertaining to the fake and counterfeit stamps case involving Abdul Karim Ladsab Telgi. It said that the observations raised a question on Jaiswal’s integrity hence till the current petition was heard and decided he should be restrained from officiating as director of CBI.
After hearing the PIL, the bench directed the Centre to file its response to the PIL by July 18 and posted the hearing of the PIL to July 28.