Free To Act

The debate about whether or not CBI can or should proceed with investigation or prosecution uninfluenced by political and bureaucratic pressures (SC seeks views...May 6) calls to mind the instructions that the LF in West Bengal had issued to the police in the 60s. That was the time when gheraos were being institutionalised as a weapon in industrial disputes. The state government had issued instructions to the police that they could not intervene in case of gheraos and rescue the one gheraoed except with permission from the labour minister.

In a landmark case brought up by Jay Engineering, the Calcutta HC quashed the governments orders and held that police were obligated to perform their duties under the Police Act and the IPC etc. The same ratio would apply to CBI and any other investigative or enforcement agency.