Court reserves judgement on maintainability of Bengal's suit challenging CBI probe

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on whether the suit filed by the West Bengal government, alleging the Centre's misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is maintainable.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said that it would not allow either the Centre or the West Bengal government to raise any political issues during the arguments in the state's lawsuit.

During the arguments, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, said that once the state had withdrawn its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre couldn't allow the CBI to enter the state for investigation.

"You can't enter my state without my consent, and you can't do it suo motu (on your own)," he said, adding that the consent of the state government must be obtained for the exercise of power by the CBI.

"Once I have withdrawn consent, the Union can't allow its investigating agency to come to my state without my consent," Sibal said.

"Supposing there is an all-India scam, say in Karnataka, and the other limbs of that scam are in other states. Once the Constitutional court gives consent, the states do not need to (give consent)," Sibal added.

"In every case where the CBI starts a case suo motu, by the time relief is granted under Section 226, the investigation would have been over. It is the most dangerous proposition. The proposition itself will destroy the federal structure of this country. Our case is that the defendant can only be the Union because CBI is an investigative agency," he said.

Sibal also stated that the CBI is under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and said, that when a question is asked in the Parliament on the CBI, it is answered by the DoPT. "The minister answers because it (the DoPT) is headed by the Prime Minister," he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the Centre had administrative control over the CBI, but it didn't control its day-to-day functioning.

"The Centre has no power to ask the CBI to register, investigate or prosecute a case," Mehta argued.

"The DoPT cannot direct registration of an FIR, nor can any other department of the Central government supervise the investigation," he said.

"The administrative control is with the director and not the central government," Mehta argued, adding that it was a "devastating statement".

The Supreme Court was hearing the suit filed by the West Bengal government against the agency’s raids in relation to post-poll violence in the state in 2021, despite the absence of "general consent" by the state.