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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  CBI seeks SC nod to share details of probe into coal block allotments
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CBI seeks SC nod to share details of probe into coal block allotments

To ensure secrecy, apex court had earlier asked CBI not to share probe details with any government-appointed official

Photo: Getty Images (Getty Images)Premium
Photo: Getty Images
(Getty Images)

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating alleged irregularities in the allotments of captive coal blocks between 1993 and 2010, has requested the Supreme Court to allow it to share some details of the case with in-house prosecutors and special counsel.

The CBI made the appeal in one of three applications filed on Tuesday, along with its fourth status report on the case.

Mint has reviewed the applications.

The contents of the status report aren’t known as it was filed in a sealed cover.

On 8 May, the apex court had asked the investigating agency not to share details of its findings with any government-appointed official, to ensure secrecy in the matter.

As per that order, “no access of any nature whatsoever" can be granted to any official including “minister of the central cabinet, law officers, advocate(s), of CBI, director of prosecution and officials/officers of the central government".

The court had said details of the investigation could be shared when it becomes necessary to disclose them.

“Facts of the case are required to be discussed with the in-house prosecutors (except director of prosecution and law officers who are appointees of the ministry of law and justice)," the agency said in the application. It said it will submit a list of such officers to the court on 29 August, when the case comes up for hearing.

Rahul Singh, a professor of law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, said that although he had not seen CBI’s actual affidavit, the way it has been worded is confusing, and that it may be clarified when the matter comes up in court.

In the second application that deals with the CBI’s autonomy, the agency has again sought that its director “be vested with the ex-officio powers of secretary of GoI (government of India), reporting directly" to the department of personnel and training (DoPT). The CBI comes under the DoPT.

The affidavit also says that currently the CBI “has to approach the ministry for various approvals...which remain pending at the bureaucratic level...impacting the efficient functioning of the CBI".

Enhancing the director’s rank and pay will make sense since the incumbent is “already in the grade and pay scale of secretary", and such status will only “ensure functional efficacy", it said.

Former CBI director Joginder Singh said the CBI’s call for autonomy was impossible as “being a government department, some sort of control will be retained by the executive", and absolute freedom wouldn’t be possible.

Financial autonomy, however, is needed as “it is a travesty of justice that the man next door has more power than you (the CBI director) have", he said, referring to the director general of the Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF).

In its third application, the agency has said that, in its opinion, in court-monitored cases no government permission is required for investigating senior government officials. “There is no requirement of sanction for prosecution in cases where the court has either directed investigation or is monitoring investigation of the case" and requirement of sanction “will amount to suspension of the power of the constitutional court to monitor investigation" in the interim, the application says.

The existing provision gives the government the sole power to bar any inquiry against an employee despite the top investigating agency’s request. It has been contested heavily in recent times.

Slamming the discriminatory provision, Singh said “the provision is illegal in law as it treats citizens unequally" and requires that government officers be shielded by making prior permission compulsory.

Along with the fourth status report, the CBI submitted copies of 13 first information reports and three preliminary enquiries.

On Tuesday, the coal ministry, too, filed an affidavit before the apex court on the issue of files related to the case that may be missing, reiterating its stance .

Mint has reviewed a copy of the affidavit.

Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal made a statement in this regard in Parliament on Friday that out of 43 files sought by CBI, only seven were being searched, along with 157 other applications.

“As investigation progresses, if additional documents are called for by CBI, the ministry will supply them to CBI and, if any document is not readily available, it shall make every effort to trace and supply the same to the CBI," the government affidavit said.

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Published: 27 Aug 2013, 11:56 PM IST
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