Lok Sabha passes Bill to appoint CBI chief

Congress and other Opposition parties, including BJP's former ally, Biju Janata Dal, vote against the Bill to amend the law to appoint CBI chief

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill to amend the law to appoint the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief, despite the Congress and other opposition parties, including Bharatiya Janata Party's former ally, Biju Janata Dal, voting against it.

The Congress' opposition to the Bill is likely to lay more hurdles in the Rajya Sabha. The ruling National Democratic Alliance is in a minority in that House.

The government needs Parliament to pass the Bill as soon as possible because incumbent CBI chief Ranjit Sinha is set to retire on December 2 and the government needs to appoint his successor before that.

The amendments to the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, seek to include the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha in the three-member panel that selects the CBI director. The other two members of the panel are the prime minister and the chief justice of India. Currently, the Lok Sabha does not have a recognised Leader of the Opposition.

Another amendment states the selection process will not be invalid because of any vacancy or absence of any one member in the three-member panel. The Congress is opposed to the second amendment.

Congress sources, however, said a compromise could be reached if the government was willing to drop one of the contentious amendments. "We might support the Bill in the Rajya Sabha if the government deletes the word 'absent'," a Congress leader told Business Standard.

Congress leader M Veerappa Moily termed the amendment that provides for the selection process to continue unhindered despite the absence of a member of the panel as "criminally motivated". He said it will set an incorrect "precedent" and was open to "mischief".

"They (the government) have started destroying institutions. The intent of the government is mala fide. This amendment will have far- reaching consequences," he said.