Mumbai: The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, Maharashtra and Karnataka Governments seeking their replies to a petition challenging appointment of retired police officer S S Puri as the head of Special Investigation Team (SIT) with the rank of director general of police (DGP) to probe the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam.

The notices, issued recently, have been made returnable after three weeks, according to the petitioner Uttam Kale, a retired IPS (Indian Police Service) officer of Maharashtra Government.

The petitioner contended that the SIT headed by S S Puri, DGP, was handicapped, as he did not have the powers, conferred by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, to take various steps in investigations, probe, submit report and launch prosecution of the accused.

The petition stated that relevant provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedures, especially section 33 and section 36 listed the powers of police officers. It pointed out that the powers under CrPC lies with the person holding an office in the service of the State Government. Thus, only an officer who holds office in the service of State Government can be invested with powers under the code, the petition said.

The petition contended prima facie the SIT headed by a retired police officer could vitiate the entire investigation and cause the prosecution itself to fall. It is imperative that the investigation was conducted in accordance with law so that the accused were not able to exploit the legal loopholes.

The petitioner said that S S Puri was a retired police officer appointed by the State Government as per the orders of Mumbai High Court. Since the State did not have the powers to appoint a DGP without prior sanction of the Centre it is likely that the accused could take advantage of such loophole in the trial and vitiate the entire probe, he pointed out.

"Can the State Government or the high court appoint a retired person as DGP and invest all powers that go with that rank? These powers lie only with the Centre, which has to create special cadre, posts in the State cadre and then only the appointment could be affected from the existing pool of equivalent rank officers. The appointment of Puri as SIT chief was not legally tenable," the petitioner argued.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai High Court would hear on January 15 the plea of former police commissioner R S Sharma challenging his arrest under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and appointment of S S Puri as the SIT chief.