Government not keen on granting secretary status to CBI chief

NEW DELHI: The government is wary of granting secretary status to the CBI director due to apprehensions that this may prompt chiefs of other agencies such as IB and RAW to demand a similar elevation.

“Tomorrow everybody including the IB chief and RAW chief will ask for it,” said a senior law ministry official, who did not wish to be named. “It is not for the Supreme Court to direct us to grant such status.

Is that a judicial or an executive action? It should be the executive’s discretion to grant or not to grant such status.” The CBI director has argued that this will ensure functional autonomy but the government has consistently opposed such ademand.

In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, which has asked both the government and the CBI to explore ways and means to ensure the investigative agency’s independence and impartiality, the CBI had argued that since the director was already in the pay and grade of a secretary he should be granted the status of secretary. This will enable the CBI chief to bypass the low-level bureaucracy, which delays the agency’s finances and other administrative requirements and allow the director to report straight to the minister.

But the government, in its reply to the CBI affidavit, said an “unbridled” CBI director would set a dangerous precedent in a democratic set-up.

“An all-powerful CBI director without adequate check and balances would not be consonant with settled constitutional principles and would always carry the risk of potential misuse and may not be conducive to fearless and independent functioning of the organisation at all levels,” the government has said.