The CBI told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has been facing difficulty in functioning as an autonomous investigative agency due to obstacles routinely put up by the bureaucracy.
The CBI told the Supreme Court that the Centre was averse to vesting its director with ex-officio powers of secretary which will ensure independent working of the agency.
“Everything which we are seeking is returned (by bureaucrats). Every proposal passes through head clerks... We (CBI) need freedom from babudom,” said senior advocate Amrendra Sharan, appearing for the CBI, while seeking that CBI director’s proposals during probes be routed directly to the minister in charge of the department of personnel and training (DoPT). Mr Sharan said there are other police forces in which the director general has been vested with ex-officio power of secretary to the government.
A bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha, which was in agreement with the CBI’s proposal, asked attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati to make a categorical statement in this regard. The bench also wanted to know from the AG whether any Bill was on the anvil to grant functional autonomy to CBI to insulate it from extraneous influences.
“What happened to proposed amendment (in the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act). It is also important. Many Bills have been passed by Parliament. Was there any Bill introduced relating to autonomy of the CBI?” the bench asked Mr Vahanvati, who said there was no such Bill in the Monsoon Session but officially work was in progress.