[DSPE Act] Supreme Court to examine issue of States withdrawing general consent to CBI

The Supreme Court on Monday voiced its concern over States withdrawing general consent under the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to operate within their territories.

. A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said that it is not a "desirable position" and referred the case to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana.

The Court was hearing a plea by CBI against an order of Jammu & Kashmir High Court in a case against two lawyers Mohammad Altaf Mohand and Sheikh Mubarak in a case relating to threatening of witnesses and fabricating false evidence.

When the matter was heard in September, the top court had asked CBI to file an affidavit detailing steps taken to strengthen its prosecution unit and to identify the bottlenecks faced by the agency.

Pursuant to the same, the CBI had filed an affidavit pointing out that 8 States - West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram - have withdrawn the general consent previously granted to CBI under Section 6 of the DSPE Act.

. Section 6 of the DSPE Act , under which the CBI has been constituted, provides that a member of the DSPE i.e CBI cannot exercise powers and jurisdiction under the Act in a State without the consent of the concerned State government.

As per this provision, the consent of the State government is required for the CBI to exercise jurisdiction and to investigate the offences enumerated under Section 3 of the Act in the areas specified by the Government of India by a notification under Section 5 of the Act.

Many non-BJP States had withdrawn the general consent to CBI alleging that the BJP-ruled Central government was misusing the agency to settle scores against political opponents in non-BJP ruled states.

. The CBI' s affidavit said that since general consent has been withdrawn, specific consent on case to case basis is required to be taken which is time consuming and has proved detrimental to timely and prompt investigation.

"It is noteworthy to mention that CBI has sent over 150 requests to the Governments of Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Kerala and Mizoram during the period 2018 to June, 2021 for grant of specific consent for investigation of cases in the territory of these States. The aforesaid requests were made for investigating Trap cases, Disproportionate Assets cases, cases relating to allegation of cheating, forgery, misappropriation and loss of foreign exchange and also Bank Fraud cases. Requests were granted in less than 18% cases, which were related mainly in cases of Trap of corrupt central public servants," the affidavit said.

The top court said that is a concerning issue and referred the case to the CJI.

[DSPE Act] Supreme Court to examine issue of States withdrawing general consent to CBI

Debayan Roy

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