Sanjiv Chaturvedi's plea for contempt action against CBI in HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court fixed March 13 for hearing Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi's contempt plea against the CBI for allegedly violating judicial orders that said the agency has no absolute exemption from disclosing information under the RTI Act.

Justice V K Rao listed the matter for hearing in March after the counsel for the CBI informed that the basis on which the contempt plea is filed by the officer is the subject matter of challenge before a division bench, which is scheduled to hear the appeal on March 5.

Taking note of this, the single bench fixed the matter for hearing on March 13.In his petition, Chaturvedi has contended that the high court ruling that the CBI, and other such agencies, have to disclose information held by them pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations, was binding on them.

He has alleged that the high court orders were not being followed by the central public information officers (CPIO) of the CBI as it denied him the information he had sought regarding certain corruption cases at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for the officer, has alleged that the CPIO of CBI denied him the information despite being aware of the high court rulings.

Pracha has also argued that as the high court orders of August and September last year contained general directions that intelligence agencies have to disclose information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations held by them, not doing so amounted to contempt of court.