A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha asked the Centre this while hearing a petition by NGO Common Cause, challenging the appointment of M Nageshwar Rao as the interim director of the CBI. The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its displeasure over the interim arrangement for the “sensitive post” of CBI chief and questioned why the Centre had not appointed a regular director till now. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha asked the Centre this while hearing a petition by NGO Common Cause, challenging the appointment of M Nageshwar Rao as the interim director of the CBI. Justice Mishra said the posting did not amount to an appointment and told Attorney General K K Venugopal that “you should have appointed a CBI Director in the interregnum”. Venugopal tried to explain the situation created by the clash between former Director Alok Verma and his number two, Special Director Rakesh Asthana. But the bench wondered why the government had not started the exercise of selecting a new Director, stating that “you knew very well the person would retire soon”. The AG pointed out that the matter had subsequently reached the apex court. But Justice Mishra countered this and said the court had decided the matter on January 8, and there was time even after that. The Justice was referring to the January 8 decision of the apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, which set aside the October 23, 2018 orders of the government and the Central Vigilance Commission divesting Verma of his powers. The bench added, “CBI Director should not be ad hoc. Seven days, ten days is okay. But it can’t be like this.” Meanwhile, the Centre informed the apex court that it had taken the permission of a high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint Rao as the CBI interim director — the petition by Common Cause had contended that the consent of the committee was apparently not taken for the posting.