The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a bill seeking to extend the tenures of the directors of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) despite the Opposition’s charge that the move will rob the investigating agencies of their “autonomy”.
Replying to a debate on the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021 the Minister of Personnel Jitendra Singh said that the fixed tenure granted to the directors of the investigating agencies would help them in speedy disposal of the cases and bring down the pending cases.
The two bills that extended the tenures by five years, seek to replace the ordinances issued last month, were later passed separately by voice vote in Lok Sabha rejecting the amendments moved by the opposition.
In their debate against the passing of the bills, the opposition demanded the bills to be withdrawn as the move will make the two investigating agencies “sub-ordinate” to the government.
While, Mr Singh claimed that the tenures of the CBI and ED directors has not been extended but are fixed for the maximum five years and minimum of two years to make sure that the position is not misused.
The changes have been made to make sure the cases ongoing remains “stable” under their supervision, he further said.
“There will be continuity, stability. Certain information which is confidential with the head of an investigation agency will remain with him till the conclusion of the cases. This is going to address this (pendency of cases) issue,” said the minister.
When questions were thrown on bringing the ordinances, Mr Singh replied that there were uncertainties about the Parliament operations as the previous session was washout.
“We had to move on. We could not wait for the protest to settle down because this is the provision that is going to reflect India’s image at the international forum. So that is the urgency for the country,” he told.
He also said that change was necessary as India needed to meet the global standards.
Singh also told that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has recommended that some countries need to look after upgrading their abilities and law enforcement authorities should work upon maintaining high professional standards.
“If we have to meet the global standard and reach the global pedestal which India is already at the threshold of, we have to be more progressive and forward-looking,” he further said.
Refuting the Opposition’s charge that the move will decrease the transparency in the functioning of the investigating agencies, he said the CBI Chief is appointed by a high-level committee comprising the Prime Minister, a leader of Opposition (from the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha) and the Chief Justice of India.
