TOPIC- DO WE NEED TO REPLACE THE CBI WITH ANY OTHER

INVESTIGATING AGENCY?

HISTORY AND MAKING OF THE CBI:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is one which has been derived as a
concept from the Special Police Establishment in the year 1941 by the colonial
government. The Central Bureau of Investigation was made basically to deal and to
stop the corruption activities involving at the war-time in purchases and supplies.
Although the Delhi Special Police Enforcement Act of 1946 governing the CBI is a
very small part of the legislation as it contains only 6 Sections in it but it is powerful
enough to stop any sort of corruption taking place in any part of the country.

But after the popular matter of the Jain Diaries, the Supreme court gave certain
directions in lieu of the CBI stating that the Central Vigilance Commission shall be
given the statutory status of the CBI and the CVC is responsible to elect the
director of the CBI. The CBI possess various powers and functions with it but it
works only on those offences or matters which it gets notified by either the central
government or the highest authority which is the APEX COURT. As such the CBI
cannot intervene directly into any offence in any state until it has the permission of
that particular state government and if it wants to investigate into any matter of
the state then it must have the orders of either the high court or the Supreme
Court.

INTRODUCTION:
In a historic Judgement in the case of Vineet Narain VS Union of India1 the
Supreme Court of India issued directions to make the CBI an independent agency
so that it may function more effectively and investigates crime and corruption at
high places in public life which poses a serious threat to the integrity, security as
well as the economy of the nation. As we all know that the Central Bureau of
Investigation is the primary investigating agency of India and is known to be one of
the most reliable structures of the legislation in the country. The CBI is known to
investigate in matters of corruption, crime, high-profile cases and any sort of cases
which seems to have the country in risk. The CBI is headed by a director and team
of officials who work under him and the main office of the CBI is established in the
capital of the Country New Delhi. Now, under the guidance of the Central Vigilance
Commission, the CBI works quite effectively and is known to remove corruption,

1
AIR 1998 SC889
crime from the country. Today, the CBI stands as a part of the Indian Constitution
under the 7th schedule of the Union List.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR THE PRESUMPTION THAT CBI IS A

CORRUPT BODY IN THE MIND OF SOCIETY?
Earlier when the CBI was established it was seen by the people as a measure to
remove corruption and to stop criminal activities from the nation and people used
to look at the CBI as a trusted and reliable organization. But with time, many cases
of corruption have come up against the CBI itself and also in a shocking judgment
by the Supreme Court in the year 2013 it stated that the CBI is a Caged Parrot
speaking in its master’s Voice because of its excessive political interference
irrespective of which party happened to be in the power at the time. And now in
corruption cases like the Nirav Modi and Vijay Maliya scam, it is presumed that the
cage parrot’s wings, as well as its voice, has also been cut as so that it does not do
any harm to the people who are in power. There are many instances and events
which have shown that the CBI working is pressurized by political parties and there
is a major intervention by the various organization in the working of the CBI. It has
been seen that there is a lot of nepotism towards various party by the various CBI
officials as well the CBI Special director. To tell you more about all these reasons,
the major 3 cases which have led to this presumption are as follows:

1. The Hawala Case:

The case is also known by the name of Jain Diaries in which there was the arrest of
certain militants in Kashmir in the year 1991 which led to rais on the hawala broker
which revealed evidence of large-scale payments to national Politicians. The Special
Judge V. B. Gupta in the case ruled that there was no prima facie evidence which
could be seen as legal evidence against the accused. There were many politicians
belonging to certain political parties who got freed. Even after that successive
official circumvent the various guidelines to treat the CBI to be as a wing of the
government. Also, there were many P.I. L’s which were filed in the case but the
cases sought with no convictions of the accused.

2. The Heroic Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984):

This heroic case is another great example where the CBI was proved ineffective in
convicting the people for this incident. As the former CBI Joint Director MR.B.R.Lall
in his statement said that he was forced to remain soft by the Union Carbide CEO
for the Extradition and to remove the charges including offences like Culpable
Homicide.

3. The 2G Scam:
The 2g case is another case against the CBI in which it was seen that the UPA
government had been allocating 2G spectrum at very cheap rates through illegal
measures to different corporations. In which the Supreme court after repeated
warning to the CBI to investigate properly himself monitored the cases which lead
to the arrest of the various high-profile people.

CONCLUSION:
Thus, as in the article, we have seen the cases and incidents against the CBI, the
organization should not be replaced but it should be improved with various reforms
in its policies and even removing all the loopholes that are hampering the
organization. Also, by enacting the Lok Pal bill which will help to curb the Political
interference in the working the CBI. It would be not a good decision to replace the
CBI as people will lose faith in the Judiciary system of the Country as well. Thus, it
would be better to remove all the people who are involved in any sort of criminal or
corruption case and to elect people who are actually capable for the respective
posts. Also, to bring changes to the administrative department which will help the
better functioning of the organization as a whole.