Hearing exiled CBI chief Alok Verma's case against the government for stripping him of all powers and sending him on leave, the Supreme Court has ordered the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) inquiry against Verma under the supervision of former Supreme Court judge, AK Patnaik. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told the inquiry against him must be completed in two weeks.
Meanwhile, M Nageshwar Rao, the man who has been made the interim CBI director, will serve as an administrator and cannot take any policy decisions.
The Bench also directed that all decisions taken by M Nageshwar Rao from 23 October should be submitted in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court.
Who is Justice Patnaik?
Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik was born in 1949 in Orissa. Throughout a good student, he was selected by the Rotary Foundation in Group Study Exchange Programme in 1976 and enrolled with the State Bar Council of Orissa in 1974. He has practised at the High Court, Subordinate Courts and Tribunals in Orissa and also the Supreme Court of India.
He has been nominated by the Chief Justice of India as the the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee and Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Law and Allied Subjects. He has been conferred with the degree of Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) by the Utkal University.
Justice AK Patnaik was appointed as a judge at the Supreme Court in November 2009 and he retired in June 2014.
During his tenure as the chief justice of two states, he was known for his bold judgments, and was seen to be pro poor.
An Outspoken Judge
Justice Patnaik was in the forefront making stinging attacks on the Collegium system for the appointment and transfer of judges. “Many competent persons have often been ignored and those who were close to members of the SC Collegium were chosen because there was no objective assessment whatsoever while making the selections,” a The New Indian Express assessment reported him saying.
Case History
In 2011, Patnaik was a member of the ‘In-House Committee’ to probe into the allegations made against Justice Soumitra Sen while an impeachment motion was moved against him. The committee had concluded that Soumitra Sen was guilty of misconduct and called for his immediate removal. He resigned ahead of the impeachment motion against him in the Lok Sabha.
Patnaik was a part of the bench which on 27 February 2012 ordered the government to implement the ambitious interlinking of rivers project. They appointed a high-powered committee comprising representatives of various government departments, ministries, experts and social activists to plan and execute the project.
In 2012, a special two-judge bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi was constituted by then Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia for hearing all cases arising out of the 2G spectrum scam.
Patnaik was also part of the 2013 bench which struck down as unconstitutional Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allows convicted lawmakers a three-month period for filing appeal to the higher court and to get a stay of the conviction and sentence.
He was part of a three-judge bench of justices in 2012 to probe into criminal cases against exporters who were inquired in the preliminary investigation and had exported iron ore of more than 50,000 tonnes without valid permits.
Justice AK Patnaik had even issued directions against the alleged mismanagement of Kerala’s famous Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple.
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