The CBI was on Wednesday directed by a special court to return some documents seized by its officers during the raids on the office of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar to the Delhi government, saying the agency “cannot be clothed with divine powers” to flout its own rules.

“The CBI cannot retain the documents in the garb of the argument that investigation is in progress without whispering the fact in what manner they are related to the present case (against principal secretary Rajendra Kumar).

“The acceptance of vague reasons like investigation is still in progress implies that CBI is recognised with unbridled power to investigate even in violation of the relevant laws and regulations. The seizure of the present documents in question is in utter violation to the clause 14.19 of the CBI manual. Needless to say, clauses of CBI manual are binding upon the CBI,” Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said.

Directing the agency to return the documents as sought by the Delhi government, he said “any recognition of absolute immunity and unlimited powers will tantamount to recognition of ‘divine power’ which no authority on earth can enjoy. The CBI cannot be clothed with divine powers.”

“The CBI utterly failed to disclose the reasons of retention of the documents in its reply as well as during the arguments before the court. CBI was unable to show any relation of these seized documents with present investigation,” the court said.

The court in its 36-page order said proceedings initiated by CBI against public servants appear to be in “haste” as no preliminary inquiry was carried out.

The judge said the CBI “in the garb of the search warrant, cannot seize the documents which are not in any way related to the case and the documents seized in this manner is clearly an abuse of power.”

Disposing of the application, the court said if CBI required any of the released documents during the probe, it was at liberty to seize it back in accordance with law.

The court, however, rejected the prayer of the Delhi government for stringent action against CBI officials who have seized the documents in alleged violation of the provisions of the CBI manual, saying it was devoid of merits.

The court said CBI was, however, at liberty to retain photocopies of these documents and directed the Delhi government to depute a responsible officer to sign and stamp on those photocopies to avoid any dispute.

The plea said: “The sole objective of the raid at ‘said premises’ was to malafidely intrude, obstruct and dislocate the work of government of NCT of Delhi as such and cause immense harm, juxtaposed with state’s functions to secure societal reforms, welfare, security and privacy.”

The CBI had raided office of principal secretary Rajendra Kumar on December 15 during which entry of officials and staff was banned on third floor from where the chief minister runs his government. The investigating agency had earlier told the court that the raid at Mr Kumar’s office was not aimed at the Delhi government but against an alleged corrupt officer who had misused his official position.

The prosecution had also said the documents seized during the raid were relevant for the ongoing probe by the agency and had alleged that the accused in the case was a senior officer who possessed the documents seized by it, and in all likelihood, he could have tampered with them. Advocate Rahul Mehra, who represented the Delhi government, had rebutted the CBI claim and said original documents were seized “indiscriminately” by the agency during the raid.

Mr Mehra had argued that the CBI was bound to follow its manual and only necessary documents could be seized. “They seized original documents, including a Cabinet note of June 2015 and a telephone diary of the chief minister’s officer. What purpose will these documents serve ”