Accountability commission: CBI fine with oversight by babus, not judges

NEW DELHI: Opposing the proposed accountability commission of ex-judges, the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) has instead sought that complaints against its top officers be probed by bureaucrats.

"CBI is open to third party verification of its complaint redressal policy and performance by two options. One, by a committee consisting of additional secretary, vigilance, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), joint secretary, Law and senior most joint director of CBI. And two, by a panel having nominees from National Commission for Woman or National Commission for Minorities and National Human Rights Commission," a senior CBI official told ET.

In the first case, the report of this committee will be vetted by the CBI director and sent to central vigilance commissioner (CVC) for approval. The CVC may also refer complaints to this committee if the allegations are against officers of the rank of DSP and above and are of serious nature, the official said.

"In the second case, the panel will include the CBI director or his nominee and meet periodically and look into complaints," the official said. The SC will hear the matter on August 29.

While CBI wants its director and senior officers as part of any oversight committee, the group of ministers (GoM) looking into CBI's autonomy had proposed an external accountability commission of three retired Supreme Court or high court judges to be appointed by the President with the CVC as a ex-officio member.

Proposing powers of a civil court for such a commission, the government said it could entertain complaints from the public or those referred to it by the government.