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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Police freedom

Police freedom

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published Published on May 10, 2013   modified Modified on May 10, 2013
-The Hindu Business Line

 

 

The Comptroller and Auditor General's suggestion that the CBI be given constitutional status similar to that of his own office is not without merit.

Every now and then, the issue of freeing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Government's clutches takes on a fresh urgency. The latter's response has been to wait till the fuss died down and eventually do nothing. There are no special reasons to believe it is going to be different this time - even when the Government's contretemps in the coal blocks allocation case have so incensed the Supreme Court, that it has practically ordered it to pass a new law making the CBI genuinely autonomous. Indeed, the apex court had done precisely that in January 1998 and also in the hawala case. The then United Front government - which had members who now also adorn the Congress-led UPA government in very senior positions - had pleaded inability because Parliament had been dissolved. The BJP-led NDA, when it came to power in 1998 and again in 1999, could have done what it is demanding of the UPA now. But it didn't. The Congress itself has made vague promises many times, but doing nothing. Meanwhile, a debate is on in right earnest with one set claiming that no nation can afford to have a totally independent police agency and the other, arguing for the exact opposite. Only the CAG, who started the process that has unravelled the corruption endemic in government, has made the most appropriate suggestion - let the CBI enjoy a constitutional status just as his own office. Its autonomy arises from Article 148(6) of the Constitution which reads: "The administrative expenses of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of persons serving in that office, shall be charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India". This is what makes the difference. To be truly autonomous, any agency has to be a creature of the Constitution, not of Parliament.

This has been suggested even before. When, back in 1963, the Santhanam Committee on corruption was discussing these issues, Jawaharlal Nehru himself had indicated that he would prefer this. Most members of the panel also favoured it. But by the time the CBI was actually set up, Nehru was no more. Mundane budgetary issues then led to its being placed under the Home Ministry. Without enjoying constitutional status, the CBI's expenses cannot be a charge on the Consolidated Fund of India. The Parliament must then vote on it, which necessitates its incorporation under the ‘Demands for Grants' of some ministry. This arrangement functioned well in the beginning, but Indira Gandhi's brand of governance gradually undermined its independence. Since the 1990s, the agency has become no more than an instrument for keeping the Opposition in check while granting immunity to the Faithful. Neither the NDA nor the UPA have been exceptions to this general practice.

So, can the CBI be made into a Constitutional body? Perhaps, only by the next generation of politicians, because the current lot has all the wrong credentials (‘samskaras') by dint of their past actions. In the meantime, the pressure must be kept up.


The Hindu Business Line, 9 May, 2013, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/editorial/police-freedom/article4699379.ece


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