{"id":14712,"date":"2021-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/08-04-2021\/sc-on-appointment-of-cbi-director\/"},"modified":"2024-06-07T18:12:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T12:42:17","slug":"sc-on-appointment-of-cbi-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-04-2021\/sc-on-appointment-of-cbi-director","title":{"rendered":"SC on Appointment of CBI Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Supreme Court <\/strong>(SC) has told the government that <strong>interim appointments<\/strong> to the post of <strong>Central Bureau of Investigation<\/strong> (CBI) <strong>Director cannot go on<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Background<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A petition was filed by <strong>Common Cause<\/strong>, objecting to the interim appointment of CBI Director.\n<ul>\n<li>Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization fighting for an accountable government, equal rights\/opportunities\/representation and empowering voices to be heard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Solicitor General of India<\/strong> strongly <strong>objected to these allegations<\/strong> and the <strong>SC has decided to hear arguments <\/strong>from both sides shortly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Concerns Highlighted<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It highlighted that the<strong> government had failed<\/strong> to appoint a regular Director through the high-power selection committee.<\/li>\n<li>An <strong>interim appointment<\/strong> through an executive order was <strong>not envisaged<\/strong> in the statutory scheme of the<strong> Delhi Special Police Establishment (DPSE) Act, 1946<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The CBI Director is a <strong>sensitive post<\/strong> and is the<strong> final authority<\/strong> in the organisation in several sensitive investigations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Suggestions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There should be <strong>determined efforts to enhance the functional autonomy <\/strong>of the CBI and also<strong> limit the extent of executive discretion<\/strong> in the matter of appointments.<\/li>\n<li>The premier investigative agency<strong> should function independently <\/strong>outside the pale of the Executive or political powers.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>mechanism<\/strong> should be introduced to ensure that the <strong>process of selection of CBI Director is completed one or two months in advance<\/strong> of the retirement of the incumbent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Central Bureau of Investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the <strong>premier investigative agency <\/strong>with a<strong> dual responsibility<\/strong> and operates under the <strong>Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>It investigates grievous cases and provides leadership and direction in fighting corruption to the Police force across the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>History<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It traces its origin to the <strong>Special Police Establishment<\/strong> (SPE) which was set up in <strong>1941 <\/strong>by the Government of India.\n<ul>\n<li>Its functions were to investigate cases of bribery and corruption in transactions during <strong>World War II<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>DPSE Act <\/strong>was therefore brought into force in <strong>1946<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This Act <strong>transferred the superintendence of the SPE to the Home Department<\/strong> and its<strong> functions were enlarged <\/strong>to cover all government departments.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>jurisdiction of the SPE extended<\/strong> to all the Union Territories and could be extended also to the States with the consent of the State Government concerned.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CBI was set up by a <strong>resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs<\/strong> in <strong>1963 <\/strong>after recommendations by the <strong>Santhanam committee <\/strong>and <strong>DPSE was made a part <\/strong>of it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Motto: <\/strong>Industry, Impartiality and Integrity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>To uphold the Constitution of India and law of the land through in-depth investigation and successful prosecution of offences<\/li>\n<li>To provide leadership and direction to police forces.<\/li>\n<li>To act as the nodal agency for enhancing inter-state and international cooperation in law enforcement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Functions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Investigate corruption offences by the Central government servants, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs).<\/li>\n<li>Economic crimes like financial frauds, narcotics, antiques, smuggling etc.<\/li>\n<li>Important conventional crimes such as murders, kidnapping, terrorist crimes, etc., on a selective basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Headquarters:<\/strong> New Delhi, along with various Zonal offices.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Appointment of Director<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>As per the <strong>Section 4 of the DPSE Act<\/strong>, the Central Government shall appoint the Director on the <strong>recommendation of the Committee<\/strong> consisting of the <strong>Prime Minister <\/strong>(PM), the <strong>Leader of Opposition<\/strong> and the <strong>Chief Justice of India<\/strong> (CJI) or Judge of the SC nominated by him\/her.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No appointment of a Director shall be invalid<\/strong> merely by reason of any vacancy or absence of a Member in the Committee.<\/li>\n<li>The Committee shall recommend a panel of officers\n<ul>\n<li>On the basis of <strong>seniority, integrity and experience<\/strong> in the investigation of anti-corruption cases<\/li>\n<li>Chosen from amongst <strong>officers belonging to the Indian Police Service <\/strong>constituted under the All-India Services Act, 1951.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tenure: <\/strong>The Director shall continue to hold office for a period of <strong>not less than two years <\/strong>from the date of assuming office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/interim-appointments-of-cbi-director-cant-go-on-sc\/article34244106.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has told the government that interim appointments to the post of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director cannot go on. Key Highlights Background A petition was filed by Common Cause, objecting to the interim appointment of CBI Director. Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization fighting for an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[31,30,39,119,120,130,121],"class_list":["post-14712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-government-policies-interventions","tag-gs-2","tag-issues-arising-out-of-their-design-implementation","tag-role-of-ngos","tag-shgs","tag-transparency-accountability","tag-various-groups-associations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1918244Current-Affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25430,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712\/revisions\/25430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}