Jharkhand on Thursday joined several non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states to withdraw its general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation to inquire into cases in the state, the Hindustan Times reported. Now, the investigating agency has to approach the state government on a case to case basis, seeking permission to conduct an inquiry.
The CBI comes under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and requires states to give it general consent to look into allegations against central government employees within a state. This is because the police and public order fall under the purview of state governments, which regularly renew their permission.
“The powers vested on CBI were given dated 19th February 1996 by the erstwhile then Bihar Govt to CBI,” the Jharkhand government said in its order. “The governments of West Bengal, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and earlier Mizoram had recently withdrawn the general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a kind of blanket nod for the agency to probe scheduled offences specified in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DPSE) Act, 1946.”
On Wednesday, Kerala had withdrawn its general consent to CBI to inquire cases in the state. On October 21, Maharashtra revoked the consent. This was preceded by Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. However, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government reversed the decision after he was elected to power in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the states have alleged that the Centre used the CBI to attack their governments.
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