The Madras High Court on Tuesday batted for making the CBI autonomous and passed a number of directions to "release the caged parrot".
The directions were passed by a Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi, who noted the CBI had been dragging its feet despite demands for probing multiple sensitive cases.
The Madras High Court was hearing a plea seeking a CBI probe into an alleged Ponzi scam in Tamil Nadu to the tune of Rs 300 crore.
The Madras High Court directed the Centre to make a separate law to give statutory status to the CBI. Currently, the CBI derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
"The independence of CBI is necessary for an impartial, neutral, credible investigation of the cases investigated by it. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Hawala case viz., Vineet Narayanan Vs. Union of India, observed that 'CBI' is a caged parrot speaking in its master's voice. The said observation of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is fortified by the statement made by the CBI Director before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Coal allocation case that a former Law Minister meddled with the statement of CBI filed before the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
The court directed that the CBI be made "more independent like Election Commission of India and Comptroller and Auditor General of India," Bar and Bench reported. The bench also directed that the CBI director be given powers on par with a secretary of the Central government, reporting directly to the minister or prime minister, without going through the department of personnel and training.
"The Central government shall make CBI independent with functional autonomy without administrative control of the government," Bar and Bench quoted the Madras High Court as saying.
The Madras High Court also batted for a dedicated cadre of officers for the CBI. "It is also stated that the officers inducted in CBI (are by way of) on deputation from State police and CPOs with fixed tenure and it is also one of the constraints of the CBI. Hence, there is a necessity for inducting and recruiting their own officials, instead of depending upon deputation from Police force and other forces," Bar and Bench quoted the Madras High Court as saying.
