New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi might not be able to appoint a successor to controversial CBI Director Ranjit Sinha in a hurry.
After the enactment of the Lok Pal Act - meant to give more teeth to the CBI - the director of the agency has to be appointed by a collegium of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee and the Leader of the Opposition.
There is no Leader of Opposition and the government has decided to amend the act to include the leader of the largest opposition party as its member.
The government was keen to go ahead with the appointment without the leader of Opposition and has been told by the Law Ministry it can technically do so. But that will raise questions regarding its haste in appointing a CBI director in absence of a key participant of the collegium.
Last year, the Supreme Court had raised a number of issues and wanted the CBI to be given real functional autonomy, which it was able to get with the enactment of the Lok Pal.
The Narendra Modi government now wants to dilute some of the provisions, including taking over the administrative control of the Director of Prosecution.
The planned amendment wants the Director of Prosecution - who decides whether a case is fit for criminal prosecution - to be independent of the CBI Director and they have downgraded the post to that of a joint-secretary level officer.
A new CBI director will be needed by early December, but the appointment can only be made once the amendments are passed in the winter session of Parliament.
Until then, the CBI may have only an acting director, unless the government goes ahead and the Chief Justice or his nominee decides to take part in a selection process without the third member.
After the enactment of the Lok Pal Act - meant to give more teeth to the CBI - the director of the agency has to be appointed by a collegium of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee and the Leader of the Opposition.
There is no Leader of Opposition and the government has decided to amend the act to include the leader of the largest opposition party as its member.
Last year, the Supreme Court had raised a number of issues and wanted the CBI to be given real functional autonomy, which it was able to get with the enactment of the Lok Pal.
Advertisement
The planned amendment wants the Director of Prosecution - who decides whether a case is fit for criminal prosecution - to be independent of the CBI Director and they have downgraded the post to that of a joint-secretary level officer.
Advertisement
Until then, the CBI may have only an acting director, unless the government goes ahead and the Chief Justice or his nominee decides to take part in a selection process without the third member.
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Madhya Pradesh's CBI Move: Agency Needs Written Consent To Probe Cases Patna Court Sends NEET-UG Paper Leak Key Accused To 14-Day CBI Custody Engineer Stole NEET Question Paper From Exam Body's Trunk, Arrested By CBI Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests Tesla Halted Some Production Lines Due To Global IT Outage: Report SpiceJet Says Services Up Again After "Resolution" Of Microsoft Outage Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.