In his presentation, CBI director A P Singh is expected to demand greater functional autonomy and treatment as an “equal partner”, not as a subordinate agency of the Lokpal.
The agency is also expected to argue for its director — who has a fixed two-year tenure — to be an ex-officio member of the Lokpal and for the same selection process for his appointment as for members of the Lokpal. This, if accepted, will be a major departure from the existing procedure of the director being selected by the Central Vigilance Commission from a panel put up by the Government.
The CBI — which has had a series of internal consultations on the subject — is expected to ask for a five-year tenure for the director, a year more than the term enjoyed by the CVC. It will also argue that powers enjoyed by the CBI director be similar to those enjoyed by the chief of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), its counterpart agency in the US.
The CBI is gearing up to make a strong case for it not being made a subordinate agency to the Lokpal and not being divested of its portfolio of handling anti-corruption cases. The agency hopes to buttress this case by citing the Supreme Court ruling in the Vineet Narain case pushing for exclusivity of the CBI.
While the agency has indicated it will have no objections to its powers of meeting financial, administrative and legal requirements being vested in the Lokpal, it has decided to go a step further to suggest that decisions on sanctions for filing prosecution and initiating inquiries as well as filing appeals in higher courts can also vest with the Lok Pal.
In the present set-up, the financial and administrative control of the agency is with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which, in turn, relies on the Ministry of Law for filing appeals on a case-to-case basis. All requests for seeking prosection sanctions from departments and ministries are also routed by the CBI through the DoPT.
The CBI is expected to pitch for a similar “synergy model” as the Lokpal to be replicated in the state Lokayuktas.