The High Court directed the team to submit its investigation report within 100 days of starting the probe and progress reports every 30 days.— DC Image

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed the Karnataka High Court’s directions constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and ordering a fresh investigation into alleged irregularities in the Karnataka Public Service Commission’s recruitment of veterinary officers.

A bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi issued notice on the Karnataka government’s plea challenging the High Court’s September 21 decision to constitute an SIT to investigate the recruitment of 400 veterinary officers and related allegations concerning other KPSC recruitments.

The court sought responses from the original petitioners before the High Court by October 12. It directed the state to file an additional affidavit in a sealed cover setting out any objections to the officers appointed to the SIT and said it could suggest alternative names.

The court clarified that the interim stay applied to the paragraphs of the High Court judgment dealing with the SIT’s constitution and the de novo investigation.

“In the meantime, the directions in paragraph 34(i) and 34(ii) shall remain stayed. Issue notice returnable on October 12. By the next date, the state shall submit in sealed cover delineating the objections, if any, against the members of the SIT constituted under the order of the high court and may suggest alternative names for the SIT,” it said in Thursday’s order.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state, submitted that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was already investigating the matter and that its probe was nearly complete.

He said there were no specific allegations against the CID officers to justify a fresh investigation. He also objected to the High Court selecting the SIT’s members without seeking the state’s suggestions.

Sibal questioned the inclusion of Alok Kumar, Director General and Inspector General of Prisons, referring to a separate CBI probe that, he alleged, had raised questions about the officer’s role in phone interception and tapping.

Senior advocate K. Parameshwar, appearing for the respondents, said the original petition before the High Court had sought a CBI investigation and questioned the state’s objection to an SIT comprising its own police officers.

He argued that the state could not dictate the composition of the investigating team and said the government had neither notified the SIT nor transferred the relevant records following the High Court’s order.

On September 21, the High Court ordered an SIT headed by Kumar to investigate the alleged irregularities and directed the CID and the jurisdictional police to hand over evidence to it.

The other members named were Forensic Science Laboratory director Divya Gopinath, an officer of Inspector General of Police rank; DCPs Anup Shetty and Shama Mishra; and Superintendent of Police Kushal Chouksay.

The High Court directed the team to submit its investigation report within 100 days of starting the probe and progress reports every 30 days. It also directed the state government to notify the SIT as a police station for the investigation.

The KPSC has been under scrutiny since Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot suspended its chairman, Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar, over allegations that he facilitated the illegal selection of his two daughters as industrial extension officers.

Sahukar is reported to be missing. KPSC registrar Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, an IAS officer, was arrested along with an alleged middleman, Basavaraj Kannale

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