Tamil Nadu withdraws general consent accorded to CBI to probe cases in state

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.

The consent of the state government to CBI can be either case-specific or “general”. (File)

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Hours after Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over his alleged role in a job racket scandal, the state government Wednesday withdrew the general consent accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to carry out probes in the state.

Senthil Balaji, the Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise, was arrested early Wednesday by ED as part of an unfolding investigation into the job-for-cash scam, which allegedly took place when Balaji was the transport minister from 2011 to 2016 in the erstwhile AIADMK government. The DMK leader’s arrest came after he was interrogated for 18 hours by the central agency.

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In a communique on Wednesday, the home department said that as per Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Central Act XXV of 1946), CBI has to secure prior permission from the concerned state government before conducting a probe in any case there.

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“The Tamil Nadu government has today issued orders withdrawing the general consent given to a few types of cases in 1989 and 1992 under the aforesaid rule. Accordingly, the CBI has to henceforth get the Tamil Nadu government’s permission for conducting an investigation in the state,” a release read.

It noted that other states, including West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala, Mizoram, Punjab and Telangana, have already issued a similar order. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Meghalaya, too, have withdrawn general consent accorded to CBI.

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

General consent is normally given by states to help CBI to conduct a seamless investigation of corruption cases against central government employees in their states. This essentially means consent by default and CBI may begin investigations into a case in a state with the premise that consent has been already given to it.

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