'Release caged parrot': Madras HC says CBI needs statutory status like EC

The Madras High Court has issued a series of directions to the Central government for releasing the caged parrot or ensuring autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBIHearing a Public Interest Litigation to transfer a case of cheating by a finance company probed by Tamil Nadu Police to the central agency the courts Madurai bench on Tuesday said Only when the CBI is given a statutory status would the autonomy of CBI would be ensured Secondly it should have a dedicated cadre of officers on its own without getting the officials on deputationThe CBI should have an autonomy as that of Comptroller and Auditor General of India who is only accountable to ParliamentThe court also said that the CBI Director should be vested with exofficio powers of the Secretary to the Government of India reporting directly to the Ministry without having to go through the Department of Personnel and Training DoPTPointing out that the Supreme Court and the High Courts entrust the CBI with investigation of cases without the consent of the states the court ordered that the Centre consider and take a decision for enactment of a separate Act giving statutory status with more powers and jurisdiction to the CBI at the earliestIt also sought that the CBI shall be made more independent like the Election Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and a separate budgetary allocation shall be made for the agencyAlso read Madras High Court stays single judge order against actor VijayThe CBI Director shall be given powers as that of the Secretary to the Government and shall directly report to the MinisterPrime Minister without going through the DoPT the Centre shall make the CBI independent with functional autonomy without administrative control of the government the Central Forensic Science Laboratory shall have more modern facilities and should be augmented on par with the facilities available to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the UKs Scotland Yard it addedThe court asked the DoPT to pass orders on the CBI restructuring letter dated September 9 2020 after consulting with other departments if necessary within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this orderIt said that the CBI should file a well thought out policy within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order for permanently recruiting i cyber forensic experts and ii financial audit experts so that all the brancheswings of the CBI should have these experts available with them and not on case to case basisThe DoPT should clear all the pending proposals pertaining to the CBIs infrastructure development eg land construction residential accommodation upgradation of available technical gadgets etc within a period of six weeks the court saidThe CFSL attached to the CBI should clear all the pending cases as on December 31 2020 Similarly other FSLs should also offer their Forensic opinion pending as on December 31 2020 within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this orderThe court also said that the details of cases wherein charges have not been framed by the trial courts despite the charge sheets having been filed by CBI for more than one year should be shared by the CBI Director with the respective Registrars General of the High CourtsIt also said that the CBI itself has stated in reply it has to work within the constraints of shortage of manpower the CBI Director should send another detailed proposal seeking further increase in the divisionswings as well as strength of CBI officers to the Centre within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and the Centre should pass orders on this within a period of three months of its receiptThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever