Coming down heavily on the government on the issue, the court directed the solicitor general to find out why the officer was transferred at this stage and that too without finding a successor.

"In the event that the transfer of MK Bezbaruah takes effect on or before September 8, the next date of hearing, it shall be subject to further orders of this court," a three-judge bench observed while hearing the more than Rs 1,000-crore Indian Bank scam case.

The transfer at this stage was a "very very distressing factor" and "we are extremely bothered about this", the three-judge bench comprising Justice SP Bharucha, Justice GT Nananvati and Justice BN Kirpal observed.

Directing the government to file an affidavit giving its response on the factual position on the transfer, the bench took note of Solicitor General Santosh Hegde's statement that "no cases which were/are investigated/ supervised by Bezbaruah shall be closed/conceded until the next date of hearing."

The Supreme Court directions came when amicus curiae in the Indian bank scam case Anil Diwan urged the court to order status quo in the transfer of Bezbaruah which he said was effected in utter disregard of apex court's guidelines. The officer had not even handed over the charge as yet, he argued. The status quo was, however, not granted by the court which observed that it was not proper to do so without hearing the Government.

Making his point, Diwan said such transfers would totally demoralise honest officers who were handling sensitive cases. This was particularly because even the Central Vigilance Commissioner had not been appointed.

Diwan said Bezbaruah was handling many Fera cases against VIPs, including Chandraswami and was a member of the nodal agency set up in the wake of the Vohra committee report which went into nexus between politicians, civil servants and the mafia dons.

Diwan reminded the court that it had passed several directives to protect investigating officers from political, executive and other extraneous influences. Not a single directive had, however, been implemented by the government, he added.

In response, Hegde told the court that he would place answers to all these queries in an affidavit before August 26.

In the bank scam case, the bench also recorded the statement of the solicitor general that "no case with which the writ petition filed by Janata party President Dr Subramanian Swamy is concerned be closed without further orders till the next date of hearing." Diwan had expressed his apprehension that government might close some of the cases relating to Indian bank scam.

Diwan argued that Bezbaruah was personally supervising several sensitive cases involving powerful persons including businessmen, politicians and others. Among cases being handled by him included those arising out of the Jain hawala case, alleged violations of Fera by Chandraswami and newspaper baron Ashok Jain.