Delhi High Court issues contempt notices to senior CBI officers on petition of IFS Officer

New Delhi: A single Bench of Delhi High Court has issued contempt notices to senior CBI Officers Vineet Vinayak, the then Joint Director, CBI and Gagandeep Gambhir, then Superintendent of Police, on petition of IFS Officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
Justice Jasmeet Singh in an order of September 22, while fixing the date of October 31 for hearing at 3:30 pm, has said, on this date, "It will be the endeavour of the court to hear and decide the petition.”

The petition was filed in January 2018, by IFS Officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who had earlier worked as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in AIIMS, Delhi, regarding a corruption case investigated by him in AIIMS. The case was related to allegations of financial irregularities in the purchase of certain materials in the Institute.

"In September 2017, Chaturvedi filed an RTI Application with the CBI, seeking documents related to the investigation done by the CBI. However, this Application was rejected by then Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Gagandeep Gambhir, who was then Superintendent of Police in CBI, on the ground that CBI falls in the list of exempted organizations under Section 24 (1) of the RTI Act. Against this, Chaturvedi had filed an appeal in November 2017, before Vineet Vinayak who was then Joint Director of CBI. However, the appeal was also rejected on the same ground," the High Court stated. 

Against these orders, Chaturvedi had moved a contempt petition against both these officers in the Delhi High Court on the ground that the denial of information violated orders and directions passed by the Delhi High Court in September 2017 as well as in August 2017, in which High Court had clearly passed the orders that organizations covered under Section 24 of RTI Act, have to supply information related to corruption and human right violations.

In the Contempt Petition, he claimed that the information sought by him from CBI was related to allegations of corruption and hence, as per orders of the High Court of Delhi, CBI was bound to disclose this information.
Earlier, the date of hearing of this case was fixed on November 20 against which Chaturvedi had moved an application for an early hearing, on the ground that if the matter is not heard at an earlier date, the petitioner will suffer in his career. On his application, the High Court has passed an order, "The next date, i.e. November 20, 2023, stands cancelled."