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Common Cause v. Union of India and Others

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2017 INSC 1152Decided 28 Nov 2017
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1088 of 2017
Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

Common Cause, a registered society, challenged the 22.10.2017 appointment of Shri Rakesh Asthana as Special Director, CBI, alleging it was illegal and violated principles of institutional integrity, partly because his name reportedly surfaced in diaries/papers seized in a raid on the Sterling Biotech/Sandesara Group and in an unrelated CBI FIR referencing "other unknown" persons. The petitioner argued the statutory Selection Committee's consultation with the CBI Director (who had flagged concerns) was not given adequate weight, relying on precedents like Vineet Narain and the 1993 Second Judges Case on the primacy of consultation.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that where a Selection Committee (rather than a single consulting authority) makes the recommendation, consultation with another person (here, the CBI Director) is only a factor to be considered, not something requiring primacy or veto power. Examining the Selection Committee's minutes, the Court found it had in fact considered the Director's confidential note, found no established link between Asthana and the person named in the seized papers, noted the CBI itself had proposed Asthana for the post, and unanimously recommended him: a decision the Court held was not open to merits review once genuine consultation had occurred (citing Mahesh Chandra Gupta on the limited scope of judicial review versus merit review). News reports claiming no decision was taken were found to be factually incorrect. The writ petition was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not substitute their own judgment for that of a statutory Selection Committee's unanimous, deliberated recommendation merely because a consulted authority's concerns were not accepted, as long as genuine consultation took place and the decision rests on relevant material, "effective consultation" does not mean the consulted person's view must prevail.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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