State’s nod must for CBI to probe in its jurisdiction: SC

State’s nod must for CBI to probe in its jurisdiction: SC

‘Provision In Tune With Federalism’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  19.11.2020 

The Supreme Court has said that the provision making the state government’s consent mandatory for a CBI probe in their respective jurisdictions is in tune with the principle of federalism and the Centre cannot extend the jurisdiction of the agency to a state without its consent.

Referring to Section 5 and 6 of Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act which regulates CBI’s functioning, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and B R Gavai said, “It could thus be seen, that though Section 5 enables the Central Government to extend the powers and jurisdiction of members of the DSPE beyond the Union Territories to a state, the same is not permissible unless, a state grants its consent for such an extension within the area of state concerned under Section 6 of the DSPE Act.”

The verdict comes in the wake of eight non-BJP states having so far withdrawn general consent for CBI to probe fresh cases, Punjab being the last one to do so.

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Eight states have withdrawn general consent for the CBI

The others are Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. Andhra Pradesh was among the first to withdraw consent, but Jagan Reddy restored it soon after coming to power.

“Obviously, the provisions are in tune with the federal character of the Constitution, which has been held to be one of the basic structures of the Constitution,” the court said.

The bench passed the order on an appeal filed by accused challenging validity of CBI investigation against them in a corruption case on the ground that prior consent was not taken from the state government. Two of the accused are state government employees and the rest are private parties including one company.

Rejecting their appeal, the court said the state of Uttar Pradesh had accorded a general consent for extension of powers and jurisdiction of the members of DSPE in 1989 in the whole of state under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Full report on www.toi.in