BackSC tells Prashant Bhushan to disclose source of Ranjit Sinha’s guest register
The bench cites Supreme Court Rules, 2013, which prescribe that the source of information provided in an affidavit will be disclosed
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) to submit in a sealed cover the name of the person who gave it the purported guest register from the house of Ranjit Sinha, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CPIL has accused Sinha of trying to scuttle the probe into the 2G spectrum scandal and asked for his removal from the case. After the petitioner’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan submitted the register, the court had asked Sinha to file an affidavit on the matter, which he submitted on Friday.
A bench of justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde cited the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, which prescribe that the source of information which is provided in an affidavit will be disclosed.
“In our opinion, before we pass any orders in the application (by CPIL), we request Mr. Prashant Bhushan (lawyer for CPIL) to disclose the name of the whistleblower", Dattu noted in his order.
The registers allegedly show the country’s top detective had received officials from some of the companies under investigation at his home. Bhushan had earlier told the court that Sinha tried to scuttle investigations against Reliance Communications and opposed the filing of a chargesheet against the Marans in the Aircel-Maxis case.
The court agreed with CBI lawyer K.K. Venugopal’s argument that the file notings submitted by Sinha in the Marans case could prejudice the trial which is about to commence. However, the court also did not allow proceedings to be held in-camera, which was suggested by Venugopal. In-camera proceedings are not open to the public or the media.
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