Indian apex court terms CBI as ‘caged parrot’

News Desk

The Statesman

Publication Date : 09-05-2013

 

The Supreme Court of India today lambasted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for having become a “caged parrot” that “speaks in its master's voice”.

“It's a sordid saga that there are many masters and one parrot,” a bench headed by Justice R M Lodha said, after going through the second affidavit filed by the CBI on 6 May stating that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the coal ministry had made certain changes in the report on CBI's probe into allegations of irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks.

The apex court expressed displeasure at the government's interference in the coal allocation probe report and said “the heart of the report was changed on the suggestions of the government officials”. It said it needs to be ensured that the CBI functions free of all external pressures and asked the government to make the investigating agency impartial.

“CBI investigations have to be independent,” the SC observed and made it clear it will step in if the CBI was not made an autonomous body. “The job of CBI is not to interact with government officials but to interrogate to find the truth,” the court said. 
The court said the agency “must know how to stand up against all pulls and pressures by government and its officials.”

The Supreme Court asked the Centre to come out with a law before 10 July to insulate CBI from external influence and intrusion and make the working of the CBI independent and insulate it from extraneous intrusion and interference. "The best things would be that such a law is put in place before the next hearing of the case on 10 July so that

there would be an impartial and non-partisan independent investigating agency,” the judge said.

The three-judge Bench also slammed Attorney General G E Vahanvati and former Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval for misleading the court over the sharing of CBI's status report on the coalgate scam with the political executive.

Pointing out that no substantial progress has been made in the coal scam probe after the case was registered, the court also pulled up two joint secretaries in the PMO and Coal Ministry for meeting CBI officials and suggesting changes in the status report.

“How on earth could the Joint Secretaries of the PMO and the Coal Ministry attend the meeting, see the report and suggest changes to it,” the SC asked. “Probe report is not a progress report to be shared with the government and its officials," it observed.

The apex court also questioned the credibility of the CBI probe into the allocation of coal blocks and asked for a thorough and qualitative investigation. “It pains us to see the credibility of the CBI getting affected. The CBI is doing a collaborative probe.”

The Supreme Court came down heavily on the government saying that even after 15 years of the Vineet Narayan judgment, the “situation in the country has become much worse as far as CBI autonomy is concerned”.

“What is the CBI? Is it a collaborator or an investigator?” the SC asked. The CBI in its affidavit had stated that Attorney General Vahanvati, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and the two officials of the PMO and the Coal Ministry had suggested changes to its report.

Vahanvati, however, said that he never sought a copy of the report and that he acted according to the instructions of the Law Minister. “My meeting with CBI officials took place only on suggestions of the Law Minister,” he told the court.

The apex court directed the CBI not to share the progress of its probe or any report or material with anybody other than its 33-member team and Director, adding, “The CBI director and the investigating team should have stood up and denied any access to two joint secretaries to draft status report. The court wants to know can the Law Minister ask CBI to show details of probe or status report in a case involving people of other ministeries and PMO. Does it not subvert integrity of investigation if changes are brought in status report on suggestion of Law Minister and govt officers?”

The court said that it was the responsibility of the CBI chief to ensure that no access should be granted to any person, including Law Minister, other Union ministers, law officers, CBI counsel and Department of Prosecution of CBI to the probe in the coal block scam. “The status report on the probe in coalgate shall not be provided to special CBI court where FIR was registered,” it said.

The apex court also ordered that former CBI DIG Ravi Kant, who was the investigating officer in the case, should resume charge. Ravi Kant was recently shifted to the Intelligence Bureau. The apex court said it will consider various aspects, including setting up of SIT to look after the probe into the case.