NEW DELHI, Jan 29: The Supreme Court today rejected a petition by CBI director R C Sharma seeking deletion of the Apex Court observation in the hawala case asking the Government not to continue him in office beyond the expiry of his present term of January 31.Today's order by the court effectively prevents the government from extending his term which ends on the midnight of January 31, 1998. In a brief dismissal order, a three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, Justice S P Bharucha and Justice M Srinivasan, said since the government of India had taken the stand that it had decided to obey the December 18, 1997, judgement of the court as it stood today, the ``supposed right of Sharma for an extension beyond his present term stood whittled down''.
``The petition fails and is therefore dismissed,'' the judges said in their brief order after recording the stand of Sharma's senior counsel Kapil Sibal that the court's observation in the hawala judgement had ``jeopardised his futureprospects as he could in effect have been considered for an extension if the government so formed an opinion''.
The court clarified that it could not grant the prayer of the CBI director for deletion of the words. ``We make it clear that Sharma is not to be continued as CBI director beyond the expiry of his present tenure,'' as the stand of the government of India was to implement the judgement in full.
Sibal earlier submitted before the court that he was not asking for a positive direction from the court to the government to extend the term beyond January 31, 1998.
The senior counsel said his client felt that there was no reason for the court to have made the observation that he should not be granted extension beyond his present term without going into the validity of his ongoing extension.
``If this court had not thought it fit to examine the validity of the appointment of the present incumbent and decide that his appointment should not be disturbed, there is no valid reason why a direction shouldbe issued stating that he should not be continued as CBI director beyond the date of expiry of his present tenure,'' Sibal told the court. He further said if the validity of his appointment had been gone into and if the court felt that it was not valid, his appointment could have either been cancelled or quashed.
But to issue a direction not to grant extension would attach a stigma on the officer.
Attorney General Ashok Desai, appearing for the Union of India, told the court that it was the government's view that the question of extension of Sharma was not a matter for judicial decision.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
