Freeing the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI)

In News 

The recent investigative series in The Indian Express indicates a continuing bias in the functioning of the  Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI)and the Enforcement Directorate(ED)

• Despite several observations made by the Supreme Court of India (SC) against the inefficient functioning of the CBI nothing has happened to improve the situation. 

About CBI

• It is the premier investigating police agency in India. 
• It was set up by a resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1963 after Santhanam committee recommendation.
  • It functions under the Department  of Personnel, Ministry of Personnel, Pension & Public Grievances, Government of India.
• Functioning: The CBI’s functioning is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, and therefore it must mandatorily obtain the consent of the State government concerned before beginning investigations into a crime in any other State. 
  • The consent of the State government can be either case-specific or general.
• Conviction rate : CBI recorded a conviction rate of 67.56% in 2021, compared to 69.83% in 2020, according to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) annual report.

Issues in functioning of CBI     

• In May 2013, as multiple corruption scandals dogged the UPA government, the Supreme Court made an observation about the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that has stuck to the agency ever since.
  •  A Bench headed by Justice R M Lodha described the CBI as “a caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice”
  • The observation was made in the context of government interference in the functioning of the CBI in its investigation of the coal blocks allocation cases. 

• Doubts over credibility: Delivering the D P Kohli Memorial Lecture at the CBI in  April 2022, then Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana lamented that the agency had gone from being the people’s most trusted to the subject of deep public scrutiny.

• Its actions and inactions have raised questions regarding its credibility in some cases.

• Political tug-of-war: The work of the agency has been constrained by the increasingly hostile relations between the Centre and the state governments. 
  • As many as nine states have withdrawn general consent to the CBI. Most of these are Opposition-ruled states, which have alleged that the CBI is being used by the Centre to target the Opposition.
• Structurally constrained: The CBI has been stymied both by the legal structure within which it functions, and by the changes made by governments in the Rules governing it. 
• The current situation is that central agencies such as CVC, CBI, and ED have become completely defunct. Apart from following instructions from the government, they are doing nothing. 
  • The entire struggle for independence of CBI and ED is being defeated,

Efforts to tackle them 

• The struggle to free elite law-enforcement agencies such as the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) from the stranglehold of governments and political parties has been ongoing since the 1990s. 
• The landmark 1997 Vineet Narain judgement of the Supreme Court (Vineet Narain & Others vs Union Of India & Anr) dealt with this issue in detail.
• The Supreme Court fixed the tenure of the CBI Director at two years, gave statutory status to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), and stipulated that a panel headed by the CVC and including top secretaries to the Union government would draw up a panel from which the Director of the ED would be selected.
• The Lokpal Act, 2013, laid down that the CBI Director should be chosen, unanimously or by majority vote, by a search committee headed by the Prime Minister and also comprising the Leader of Opposition and the CJI or his representative, from a list of candidates drawn up by the Home Ministry and examined by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Suggestions : Series of suggestions for the improvement of the functioning of the CBI under the supervision of the CVC. 

• The CVC Act should be amended, providing for a five/seven member Central Vigilance Commission, which could broadly assume the role visualised for the Lokpal. 
• The selection process of the CVC members should be more broad based to prevent favouritism or from controversial persons being appointed. Presently, three members are drawn from the IAS, IPS and the Banking services. It should include one retired judge of the Supreme Court appointed by the CJI in consultation with the next four senior most judges.
• The CVC should constitute an advisory committee of at least 11 members drawn from criminologists and forensic science experts. 
  • This will augment the professional input in its functioning. Further, to reduce the burden on the CVC, it should be given the power to go to any expert or professional to assist it in screening complaints.
• The CVC should have an adequately experienced team to technically examine and assess the gravity of a complaint, which can then be assigned to the CBI for investigation or can be investigated by this team. 
• In the cases assigned to it by the CVC, the CBI should be made functionally and financially independent of the controls of any government ministry/department.
  • The professional supervision over the investigations of the CBI should rest only with the CVC.
• The manner of the appointment of the CBI Director should be broad based as in the case of the CVC members, whereas the other inductions/appointments in the CBI should be brought under the overarching supervision of the CVC.
• Effective administration of anti-corruption laws at the grass roots is the key to responsible governance. The state and their anti-corruption agencies would, therefore, need to be equally insulated from the state government’s interference on similar lines.

Conclusion 

• It is for the nation to demand that the country’s premier investigating agencies like the CBI, income tax authorities and the ED are not used as instruments of blackmail and intimidation by the government of the day.
  •  Rather they should work with complete objectivity and in the interest of the nation. 
• The CBI has also come under deep public scrutiny. There is an immediate requirement for the creation of an independent umbrella institution, so as to bring various agencies like the CBI, SFIO, ED, etc. under one roof.