Nine states withdraw general consent to the CBI: What does this mean?

Nine states have withdrawn general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate cases. These include Mizoram, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand, Punjab and Meghalaya, said Union minister Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

On 4 March, Meghalaya became the newest state to withdraw general consent to the CBI for investigation. The first was Mizoram in 2015.

What is general consent?

According to the Indian Express, the CBI is governed by The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, and it must mandatorily obtain the consent of the state government concerned before beginning to investigate a crime in a state.

Section 6 of The DSPE Act (“Consent of State Government to exercise of powers and jurisdiction”) says: “Nothing contained in section 5 (titled “Extension of powers and jurisdiction of special police establishment to other areas”) shall be deemed to enable any member of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise powers and jurisdiction in any area in a State, not being a Union territory or railway area, without the consent of the Government of that State.”

The consent of the state government to CBI can be either case-specific or general.

General consent is normally given by states to help the CBI in seamless investigation of cases of corruption against central government employees in their states. This is consent by default, in the absence of which the CBI would have to apply to the state government in every case, and before taking even small actions.

So the withdrawal of it means the CBI will not be able to register any fresh case involving officials of the central government or a private person in the state without the consent of the state government.

The fallout

A total of 173 requests are pending with seven of these states for a CBI probe including a highest of 132 by Maharashtra, 16 by Punjab, eight by Chhattisgarh, seven by Jharkhand, six by West Bengal and two each with Kerala and Rajasthan, according to Singh's reply.

It said that 101 permissions were granted to the CBI to probe cases by these nine states during 2019 and 2022 (up to 28 February, 2022). It included 52 permissions granted by Maharashtra, 27 by Punjab, nine by Rajasthan, eight by Jharkhand, four by Kerala and one by Chhattisgarh, the reply said.

Besides, the CBI has not been able to start probe in over Rs 21,000 crore worth bank fraud cases in want of consent by five non-BJP ruled states including Maharashtra, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh in the last three years.

Out of the total 128 requests, involving bank frauds of Rs 21,074.43 crore, a highest of 101 requests were pending with Maharashtra (involving amount of Rs 20,312.53 crore) during 2019 to 2022 (up to 28 February, 2022), 12 such requests were pending with Punjab (involving Rs 298.94 crore), eight were pending with Chhattisgarh (Rs 157.26 crore), six with West Bengal (Rs 293.64 crore) and one with Rajasthan (Rs 12.06 crore), according to a written reply by the minister of state for personnel.

With input from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.