By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday asked why the CBI should seek sanction from the government to prosecute an accused in a corruption case when the probe agency was proposed to be under the supervision of the Central Vigilance Commission.
The court also asked the government why its sanction was necessary in respect of cases being monitored by the judges.
While hearing public interest litigation pleas alleging wrongdoings in the coal blocks allocation, an apex court bench of Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph wondered why the probe agency was still not being giving a free hand for investigations.
The judges noted that the government intended to give the CVC exclusive authority to supervise CBI investigations into corruption cases but frowned over the delay in the probe agency getting the nod to question a senior coal ministry official over the blocks allocation.
“The power of (superintendence) of investigations was (to be) shifted from government to CVC then there was no need to move government for sanction,” said Justice Lodha.
The court said that the “proposed amendment in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (related to the CBI) will obviously take some time. Our concern is non-partisan investigation by the CBI”.
The court referred to an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court wherein the government had said that no sanction was required by the government whose investigation was being monitored.
Adjourning the matter to July 17, the court asked the probe agency to file its response to the proposed amendments in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act as accepted by the cabinet to make CBI independent and insulated it from extraneous intrusions.