Empowering CBI to deal with corruption
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 07, 2014 -

In yet another significant judgement that would surely help in ensuring freedom to the 'caged parrot', the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday scrapped the protective shield given to senior bureaucrats under Section 6-A of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act in corruption cases and ruled that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can probe and prosecute them without waiting for sanction from the Centre.

Section 6-A of Delhi Police Establishment Act makes it mandatory for the premier investigating agency of the country to get prior approval of the Centre to probe against an officer of Joint Secretary-rank or above, as a result of which CBI frequently faced problems in initiating investigation proceeding against senior bureaucrats in the absence of Government sanction.

The simple logic behind the ruling given by a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha and comprising justices A K Patnaik, S J Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and F M I Kalifulla was that; any corrupt public servant, whether high or low, are birds of the same feather and must be treated equally.

So, the classification made in Section 6-A of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act on the basis of status in the Government service is not permissible under Article 14 of the Constitution (equality before law) as it defeats the very purpose of finding prima facie truth into the allegations of graft and thus, protects the crime-doer.

With the Supreme Court quashing the provision that thwarts an independent, unhampered, unbiased, efficient and fearless inquiry / investigation to track down the corrupt public servants, whether CBI would be able to finally remove its shackles and free itself from the tag of a 'caged parrot' speaking and dancing to the tune of its master (read, the Government and political party/parties in power) is to be seen.

But what was really laudable in the ruling of the apex court this time was doing away with the differentiation between corrupt public servants based on their status completely and treating all corrupt public servants, irrespective of their status or position, as nothing but corruptors of public power.

In other words, birds of the same feather that should be made to confront with the process of investigation and inquiry equally. While this ruling of the Supreme Court has surely cleared the path for a neutral and bias free investigation into corruption charges against officers in the rank of Joint Secretary and above, we feel that the lingering question over the efficiency and capability of CBI to function independently as the premier investigating agency in the country would remain as long as everyone including politicians with no exception to even the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers were not brought under the ambit of this ruling.

Only then, CBI would be able to liberate itself from the tag of 'caged parrot' completely.

And, why shouldn't the same ruling be made applicable to all when it says that everyone should be treated equally when it comes to dealing with corruption in the country?