A group of ministers (GoM), which was constituted by the Prime Minister to prepare a draft law to insulate CBI from external influence and a draft affidavit to be presented in the Supreme Court, held its first meeting on Thursday. The government’s move to constitute the GoM, headed by Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, had come after the Supreme Court had indicted CBI for being a “caged parrot” of its political masters.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which exercises administrative control over the agency, gave its presentation before the GoM on Thursday. The DoPT proposal giving more financial powers to the CBI director did not find much support in the meeting which was attended by Mr Chidambaram, law minister Kapil Sibal, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and minister of state for personnel V. Narayanasamy, sources said. Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde could not attend the meeting as he is away in the US.
The DoPT opposed scrapping of the provision which requires CBI to seek government’s permission before probing an official of the rank of joint secretary and above in corruption cases, they added.
“CBI director Ranjit Sinha did not attend the meeting today since it was the DoPT that had to make a presentation, not the CBI. But the director will definitely go whenever called by the GoM for presentation,” sources said.
Talking to this newspaper, Mr Sinha said, “Whenever the GoM invites CBI, we will certainly make a presentation before it. The CBI is all set to raise the issue of providing more autonomy and independence to the country’s premier investigative agency and also insulating it from all political interference”.
We all want an independent investigative agency, he said.
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DoPT wants key provision kept
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