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CBI:
Mismatch between duties and powers
By Aditi Roy Ghatak Given that
corruption in India is not a crime but getting caught is, the
list of bureaucrats facing corruption charges on the Central
Vigilance Commissioner's website is significant in more ways
than one. Notwithstanding the scepticism with which it has
been greeted in some influential quarters and the
inconsequential impact it has had on the quality of corruption
in public life, the fact is that by naming members of his
fraternity who are under suspicion, the CVC may have induced a
sense of shame in them. If, however, those who have so
cynically abused the authority bestowed on them are beyond
being shamed, they are certainly not beyond feeling
threatened. The key element in this new drama of a website to
tell all is action. Hopefully, the man who could take the
first bold step will succeed in taking the next.
Talking about words and action, it would be worthwhile
to consider the Central Bureau of Investigation - the mother
of all investigators.
It was as early as 1940s when it
was realised by those in charge of law and order that there
was scope for such a special body and the Delhi Special Police
Establishment was moved to creating what is now the CBI. Words
and a bit of action. Yet, some six decades later and with all
the pushing and cajoling by interested quarters, the CBI Act
has not been passed. The organisation operates through the
Indian criminal jungle, thanks to the converted Delhi Special
Police Establishment Ordinance, 1943 that became an Act in
1947, wherefore someone put a full stop to the natural
evolution of the Act.
Where does this leave India's
prince among investigators? Quite simply, powerless to act in
the states of India - though it must act across the length and
breadth of the country - unless there is a clearance from the
states. One could, of course, point out that things were much
worse a year ago when the CBI could not lift a little finger
of inquiry on its own and had to seek written clearance from
the departmental secretary before investigating an officer.
Shantonu Sen, former Special IG, CBI recalls: "This
striking example of the powers that be putting a spoke in the
wheel in the CBI's zeal to investigate certain officials
featured the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and former
Union finance minister, P. Chidambaram who in 1983 inserted
the proviso in the Single Directive prohibiting the CBI from
proceeding with even a secret inquiry without a written
clearance from the departmental secretary for officers in the
rank of joint secretary and above".
Not surprisingly,
while all this permission seeking went on, the officer to be
investigated would cover his tracks. This shocking state of
affairs meant that the government had virtually installed a
hierarchy in the investigation regime. Investigate the
flunkies not the boss. Matters stand corrected today as far as
the Central Government is concerned but when it comes to the
states - arguably the hot seat of corruption, the CBI
continues to be stumped without the CBI Act that like the FBI
Act of the United States would declare certain offences as
federal.
Witness the travails of Upen Biswas
investigating the fodder scam case in Bihar with at best piece
meal permissions to proceed with investigations and having to
secure legal sanctions for every move. The ideal CBI Act would
have given Biswas the right to investigate - what must be
proven offences - without having, infructuously, to seek
permission of the offenders themselves, as seems to have been
the case. That Biswas derived his authority under special
judicial dispensation pursuant to a public interest litigation
on the matter was an entirely fortuitous
development.
The ideal CBI Act would have enabled the
CBI to investigate Jayalalitha when she was chief minister.
Instead, there was no CBI investigation and today the
investigators at the Tamil Nadu state anti-corruption wing is
doing what had to be done years after the allegations were
levelled and amidst charges that the investigations under an
opposition party are being politically guided.
A
special investigation agency - to conduct the war on
corruption in a country that ranks among the most corrupt in
the world - that will be subservient only to the law and not
to political masters is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Can the CVC ensure action on this score?
ARG
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