AK Patnaik to supervise CVC probe against Alok Verma, was part of committee that held Justice Soumitra Sen guilty of corruption

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its inquiry into allegations raised against Alok Verma within two weeks after the sidelined CBI Director challenged the government’s decision to force him to go on leave and appointed M Nageshwar Rao as the interim director. Though the CVC had requested the court to allow it to conduct the inquiry without monitoring, the court appointed retired Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik to oversee the inquiry. Patnaik is a former judge of the apex court and was appointed by the then President Pratibha Patil in November 2009. Justice Patnaik retired from the Supreme Court on 2 June 2014. [caption id=“attachment_5451051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image of former judge AK Patnaik. Youtube/amityuni[/caption] Justice Patnaik had enrolled with the State Bar Council of Orissa on 28 March 1974 and was elevated to the position of an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court on 13 January 1994. He was later transferred to the Guwahati High Court on 7 February 1994. In 1995, Patnaik became a permanent judge of the Guwahati High Court. After eight years, he assumed charge as a judge in Orissa High Court on 15 April 2002. After his stint as a high court judge in Orissa, Patnaik was appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Chhattisgarh on 14 March 2005 and on transfer, he assumed charge as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 2 October 2005. In 2011, Justice Patnaik was part of the in-house committee which was formed by the then Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan to probe into the allegations of corruption against Justice Soumitra Sen. The committee had found Justice Sen guilty of misbehaviour and called for proceedings for his removal. After the committee concluded its findings, the Rajya Sabha had approved the motion of impeachment. But Justice Sen resigned before the impeachment motion could be passed by the Lok Sabha. In February 2012, Patnaik was also part of a three-member Supreme Court bench which had directed the Centre to implement the interlinking of rivers project on time and without further delays, The Times of India had reported. According to India Today, in March 2012, Patnaik joined a two-judge special bench constituted by the then Chief Justice SH Kapadia to hear all cases arising out of the 2G Spectrum Scam.