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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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
