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Sunday, November 10, 2013

SC stays Gauhati High Court's Order that held CBI 'unconstitutional' Sat Nov 09,2013


In a major relief for the government, the Supreme Court on Sat Nov 09,2013 stayed the Gauhati High Court's unprecedented order declaring the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI as "unconstitutional" which didn't have the power to investigate crimes.
The SC  has also served notices to the Home Ministry and the CBI seeking their response on the High Court ruling.
The Centre had moved the top court today, seeking an immediate stay on Wednesday's High Court order which it called "erroneous", arguing that the verdict would adversely impact thousands of criminal cases pending across the country.
There shall be a stay of operation of impugned judgement of Nov 6, 2013 passed by Gauhati High Court," said a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana Desai at an urgent hearing held at the former's residence
The Gauhati High Court had said that the CBI could not be treated as a police force; it could only conduct "inquiries"

The bench also observed that "the judgement has to be stayed as accused in two sensational cases have sought stay of the trial."
  1. It was referring to former Telecom Minister A Raja and other accused in the 2G spectrum scam as well as Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, who had cited the High Court's order to stop proceedings against them.
2. We are concerned with all other CBI cases," the bench added after the Centre, in its appeal, had contended that the High Court's order directly impacted about 9,000 trials currently underway and about 1,000 investigations being undertaken by the CBI.

The SC has fixed December 6,2013 as the next date for hearing in the matter.

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