Undermining CBI

States' withdrawal of consent is worrying

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has always operated on relatively tenuous legal foundations — in particular, in order to investigate in the jurisdiction of a state government, it requires the state government concerned to grant it permission to do so. Recently, the governments of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have denied the CBI permission to operate in those states, by withdrawing the “general consent” that they had previously accorded to the bureau’s investigations. The West Bengal government had granted the “general consent” almost three decades ago, in 1989. Now only the higher judiciary can order a CBI investigation in a state without the consent of that state’s government — and that too came from a 2010 Supreme Court judgment. The Andhra Pradesh government has indicated that recent events involving the CBI in which two of its senior-most officers sparred with each other, leading eventually to the unusual removal from office — to be more precise, being sent on indefinite leave — of a serving CBI director had led it to withdraw its own general consent.

The state governments should be more careful about such matters. The CBI, whatever its current state, is an important arm of law enforcement; many crimes have federal implications, and there are also situations where state police lack the capacity that the CBI can provide. Indeed, all cases of rising importance get referred to the CBI. Thus, these two state governments could be seen, through this action, as undermining Indian institutional integrity and also reducing the effectiveness of law enforcement. The worry is that this decision could lead to deeper constitutional conundrums. It is to be hoped, for example, that states do not take it upon themselves to challenge the appropriateness of court-ordered CBI investigations.

However, even while the states’ actions are regrettable, the truth is that the Union government must also shoulder its share of the blame. The CBI has intermittently been accused of being an instrument of the party in power in New Delhi — right from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case, which irreparably tarnished then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s reputation. The Supreme Court had, during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government, described the CBI as a “caged parrot”. But in recent years the bias of the CBI has become noticeably worse and a serious political issue. It appears as if it is being used to target those in the Opposition who are seen as being politically dangerous to the Bharatiya Janata Party. For example, it stepped up investigation of the Bahujan Samaj Party leadership after the latter formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, threatening the supremacy of the BJP in India’s largest state. When the Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh left the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, it attracted negative attention and probes from the CBI. 

Thus, the Union government cannot escape some of the blame for this state of affairs, thanks to its politicising and undermining the credibility of the CBI. A way forward must be found that restores trust in the agency. For one, the government must abide by the spirit of the law and take the Opposition’s views on what the CBI’s leadership should be.