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| CBI |
Gauhati HC verdict :
The Gauhati High Court has quashed the Union Home Ministry resolution by which the Central Bureau of Investigation was constituted way back in 1963. The court held that the CBI was neither an organ nor part of the Delhi Special Police Establishment and thus could not be treated as a “police force” constituted under the DSPE Act.
Supreme Court :
By staying the Gauhati High Court order that declared the Central Bureau
of Investigation
“unconstitutional,” the Supreme Court has restored
more than 9,000 criminal trials pending in CBI courts nationwide.It has has also empowered the CBI to proceed with its investigation in the coal scam and 1,000 other cases.Government Response :
- The Special Police Establishment (SPE), formed in 1941 under the War Department to curb corruption, got statutory status under the Delhi SPE Act, 1946. Its work was transferred to the CBI as soon as it was formed in 1963 by a Resolution.
- The Centre said the judgment mainly raised two contentions: the April 1, 1963 resolution the Government of India issued to create the CBI was not under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and that it did not get the President’s assent. “The impugned judgment…is ex facie erroneous, contrary to the express provisions of the Constitution and the DSPE Act, 1946.
- Section 2 of the DSPE Act empowers the Central government to constitute a special police force, and... under this, the CBI was constituted; merely because the 1963 resolution does not refer to Section 2, it cannot be concluded that the resolution is not under the DSPE Act
