CBI lacks proper legal structure, says former SC judge Chelameswar
Mumbai: Former Supreme Court judge Jasti Chelameswar rued Friday that no proper legal structure was ever laid down for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He was speaking at an interactive session hosted by the All India Professionals Congress, an organisation affiliated to the Congress party, here.
Asked about the recent turmoil within the CBI, where the two senior most officials have levelled allegations against each other, Chelameswar said that "nobody issued (defined) a legal structure of the organisation" in the last seventy years.
"It is not a constitutional body. It is not a statutory body. This setup almost has tantalising powers," he said. The CBI was set up under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
Every time something happens at the state-level with political implications, people want the case to be referred to the CBI, forgetting that the agency also consists of human beings and they can make mistakes, he said.
"Every political party could work towards creating a proper statutory framework for the organisation," the retired judge added.
Earlier this year, Chelameswar was among the four senior judges of the Supreme Court who went public with their grievances about then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra's style of functioning.
Asked about that unprecedented press conference, Chelameswar said going public was the only option available to them.
The press conference was the culmination of a series of events that started in November 2017, and the decision to go public was taken only after a letter written to then CJI did not yield results, he said.
"There was a lot of criticism over our going public. If there was any possibility of issues getting solved internally, why would any of us venture out," he said.
Asked about the possibility of the Supreme Court coming in the ambit of the Right to Information Act, he said judges already give reasoning for the legal decisions taken by them but there could be scope for bringing administrative decisions within the RTI purview.
Asked to comment on absconding businessman Vijay Mallya's lawyers contending in the UK court while opposing request for his extradition that conditions in Indian jails are bad, he said while Indian jails do not boast of "five-star facilities", certain prisoners do get five-star treatment.
He also said that he would not be joining any political party or contest polls.
"Some may think political appointments (for retired judges) are not right. But what has the civil society done about it? If the civil society thought of it as not right, they should have protested. That may not have stopped it (the appointments) but would have been a deterrent factor," he said.
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Hardik Pandya, Nehra fined for breaching IPL Code of Conduct
Mumbai, May 7 (PTI): Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and his team were handed hefty fines for maintaining a slow over rate, while their rival side Gujarat Titans' head coach Ashish Nehra also copped a financial penalty and a demerit point for conduct "contrary to the spirit of the game" in their IPL clash here.
MI lost by three wickets via the Duckworth-Lewis (DLS) method to GT in a rain-affected match which concluded well past midnight at the Wankhede Stadium here.
"As it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Pandya was fined Rs 24 lakh," the IPL said in a statement.
The rest of the MI team, including the impact player and concussion substitute, were each individually fined either Rs 6 lakh or 25 per cent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser.
Nehra's offence was not explicitly stated in the IPL press release but the former pacer was visibly agitated for a considerable time during the match which had multiple rain stoppages. He was also seen engaged in animated discussions with on-field umpires.
"Ashish Nehra, Head Coach, Gujarat Titans, has been fined 25 per cent of his match fees and has also accumulated one demerit point for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct," the IPL stated.
"He admitted to the Level 1 offence under Article 2.20 - which pertains to the conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game - and accepted the match referee's sanction," it added.
For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the match referee's decision is final and binding.
