NEW DELHI : Government may not push ahead with a bill on CBI but do some tweaking of the provision in the law relating to the agency.
Official sources said that the Group of Ministers, which has been tasked to work on measures to insulate CBI from external influence, has had two meetings so far and is said to be not too enthusiastic over loosening the grip on the agency.
The sources said Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati, who was present in one of the meetings, was asked to prepare an affidavit to be submitted before the Supreme Court giving details of the proposed changes in the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act.
Under the present DSPE Act which governs CBI, the agency can only investigate specific crimes notified by the central government under the Act but the proposed bill aimed at giving powers to it to investigate cases spread across state borders without needing state governments’ permission.
The agency has submitted a bill in 2010 to the Government as it felt the DSPE Act has not been able to cater to changing nature of crimes.
The Bill defined the mandate of CBI, selection process of its Director, organisational structure, extension of powers and jurisdiction of the Bureau to States, Powers of officers of the Bureau among others.
But the sources said government is not inclined to bring these changes in the law, for which it has the draft bill.
Instead the Group might recommend some more financial autonomy to the agency chief as in the present system even for minor expenditure clearance from the nodal Personnel Ministry is required.
They said the mood in the last meeting of the GoM was that judiciary cannot dictate the executive about the working of CBI and minor changes in the DSPE Act would be enough.
The sources said there are various proposals on the autonomy to be given to CBI Director, in his working which are under the consideration of the Group headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and no final decision has been taken.
The sources said role of CVC in the selection process also came up during the discussion but the matter was left open for discussion for the next meeting.
The issue of promotion to CBI cadre officers to senior levels was already shot down by some GoM members who insisted that IPS officers should continue to hold senior positions in the agency as they have vast knowledge and experience about the functioning of both the Centre and the states, they said.
The GoM was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare a draft law to insulate CBI from external influence and a draft affidavit to be presented in the Supreme Court which had made a scathing observations against the agency while hearing the coal blocks allocation scam case.
“…CBI has become a caged parrot. We can’t have CBI a caged parrot speaking in master’s voice. It is a sordid saga where there are many masters and one parrot,” the Supreme Court had said during a hearing on May 6.
The court’s direction had come following an affidavit from the CBI director, who had admitted to have shared a draft coal block allocation probe report with former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and two joint secretaries in the Prime Minister’s Office and Coal Ministry.
The apex court had also asked the government to make an effort to come out with a law to insulate CBI from external influence and intrusion.
The Group will finalise its findings and draft a law which will be submitted to the Supreme Court before July 10, next date of hearing of the case.
CBI, which is probing irregularities in allocation of coal mine blocks on the direction of CVC, has so far registered 11 FIRs in the matter. (AGENCIES)
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