The Hindu : Supreme Court to hear plea against CVC Act curtailing CBI's powers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

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Supreme Court to hear plea against CVC Act curtailing CBI's powers

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19. The Supreme Court will hear on January 23 a public interest petition seeking stay of the "single directive" in the Central Vigilance Commission Act, under which the Central Bureau of Investigation was required to take prior approval of the Union Government for initiating any inquiry or investigation against senior bureaucrats.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice S.H. Kapadia, fixed the date after hearing the amicus curiae in the case, Anil Divan, and the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, who said that a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and the amicus curiae's application could be heard together.

Mr. Divan, who has been appointed amicus curiae in the petition filed by the Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, in 1997, brought to the court's notice the notification of the CVC Act, 2003 after it received the President's assent on September 11.

He said the apex court had, in the `Vineet Narain case,' struck down the "single directive" but the same had been restored in the CVC Act. He said that by Section 26 (c) certain amendments had been made in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act by inserting a new Section 6 A. (The CBI has been constituted under this Act).

Mr. Divan submitted that the CBI had been investigating the cases without any impediment of prior sanction from the Central Government since December 18, 1997 when the apex court delivered its judgment.

He said the present proceedings were inter-connected with the `Vineet Narain case' and formed part of a continuing mandamus to monitor and ensure independent, unbiased and unhindered investigation and enforcement of the law by investigative agencies.The amendments to the CVC Act had revived the core provisions of the single directive by which the CBI could not even embark on an inquiry or investigation without prior approval of the Central Government in relation to certain highly-placed bureaucrats above the rank of Joint Secretaries.\He said though these provisions were not incorporated in the CVC Bill 1999, they had found their place in the 2003 Act.

The Government, in its response to Mr. Divan's application, said that it had introduced the Bill without the single directive clause but the Joint Parliamentary Committee, in its report to Parliament, suggested the re-introduction of the clause on the ground that "no protection was available to the persons at the decision-making level."

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