Observing that the "essence" of every government action must be in the interest of the institution, the Supreme Court asked the Centre and the CVC what was the "grave exigency" that prompted the "overnight" decision to divest Alok Verma of his powers as CBI Director over his bitter feud with Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
The court said this while posing searching questions to the Centre and the Central Vigilance Commission(CVC) for waiting for more than three months to intervene in the feud between Verma and Asthana, who is the probe agency's No.2.
"Institutions cannot be allowed to crumble," the court observed while reserving its verdict on the petitions filed by Verma and others challenging the Centre's October 23 decision to divest him of all powers and sending him on leave.
"The essence of every government action must be in the interest of the institution and to adopt the best course," said a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
At one stage, the court asked, "Can there be an acting director?"
"Can you see the situation which prompted CVC to take action. It was not overnight. It was happening since July as the Attorney General said."
Further, he justified the intervention of the CVC in the tussle between the two officers by saying that "the ongoing fight between them vitiated the official environment in the CBI. It vitiated the environment among CBI officials."
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for NGO 'Common Cause', said, "If there was any exigency government should have rushed back to selection committee."