The Supreme Court yesterday demanded a statement from the home secretary or a senior offical in the ministry explaining the action taken by the government on the Vohra Committee report which had discussed the nexus among politicians, bureaucrats and criminals.
The division bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Verma passed the order when it began hearing the hawala cases in which several politicians were accused of getting huge sums through illegal means, much of which found its way to the terrorists.
When the Attorney General submitted that the home secretary himself may be exempted, the judges said that any person who makes the statement must be fully conversant with the details and should be able to answer all questions put by them.
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The entire thrust of todays arguments was about freeing the investigating agencies from the clutch of the politicians and bureaucrats, who are potential accused in several financial scandals. Anil Divan, senior counsel appointed by the court to assist it, pointed out several earlier commission reports which suggested this freedom for the investigating agencies.
The Shah Commission set up after the 1975 emergency and the National Police Commission report had dealt with the undue influence applied by the ruling clique on the police and the investigating arms of several sensitive departments. Therefore, the urgent need of the hour was the independence of investigating agencies from the government juggernaut.
One of the suggestions was that the investigating officers should be given tenure posts and they should not be transferred frequently. Their service conditions like promotional avenues should be secure, counsel suggested.
He called attention of the judges to the newspapers which had reported intelligence bureau raiding the offices of the revenue department and demanding the income tax records of persons investigating sensitive cases. If that was true, honest officers would not be able to conduct invetigations, Divan submitted.
Counsel suggested appointment of court commissioners to investigate huge financial swindles sapping national wealth. The Supreme Court has exercised its power under Article 142 to conduct probes when a Gujarat judge was assaulted by the police and the Allahabad high court judges were threatened by bar members. That analogy could be extended to scams too, he said.
However, the judges said that they were thinking of a general model for all occasions, which would not call for individual models. The arguments will resume on September 11, after the home secretarys action taken report. Apart from the Chief Justice, the other judges hearing the case are Justice S P Bharucha and Justice Suhas Sen.