PIL on political-corporate nexus: Apex court grants time to Centre,CBI

The Supreme Court allowed a journalist to be made a party in a plea seeking court-monitored probe into the Essar email-leak case allegedly pointing to a “political-bureaucratic-corporate nexus”.

The took this decision while giving six weeks time to the Centre and CBI to file their response to the PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation. The bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and Kurian Joseph took strong note of the contention of Centre’s counsel that it needed at least eight weeks time as the allegations pertained to various ministries and it will have to collect information from all of them. “Every secretary cannot be made party. You are the Centre and you will have to collate the information,” it said and ordered listing of the PIL. 

The bench allowed the plea of television journalist who was represented by senior advocate Salman Khurshid as he contended that the alleged expose led to the loss of her job and reputation.