The two Bills extending the tenure of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief and the CBI Director up to five years from the current fixed tenure of two years that was tabled in the ongoing winter session was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Amid strong objection from the Opposition, the Bills were passed that replace the ordinances brought in last month.
Congress members walked out in protest when the two Bills were put to voice vote in the Lok Sabha. Several Opposition MPs also questioned the need to bring an ordinance days before the winter session of Parliament, and alleged that it was done to grant extension to one officer, ED chief S.K. Mishra.
Congress leader Manish Tewari said the Government should not bring Bills that further the perception that the ED and the CBI were frontal organisations to harass the Opposition.
Questioning the legality of the CBI, Tewari said it hangs by a stay granted by the Supreme Court to a Gauhati High Court judgment that had declared the CBI illegal.
Extending his argument to the debate on the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), pointed out that posts such as that of the CBI Director is chosen by a high-level panel that not only included the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India but also the Leader of the Opposition or the single largest Opposition party. The Minister further said that the Modi Government respected the independence of agencies such as the CBI.
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) MP N.K. Premachandran, who had unsuccessfully moved a statutory resolution to disapprove the Bills, said they “undermine Parliament and take it for granted”. “It has never happened that a Bill has been passed for one officer,” he said.
A. Raja of the DMK said the constitutional position was being destroyed and the President’s office undermined by the BJP. B. Mahtab of the Biju Janata Dal questioned the ordinance route but supported longer tenures for the CBI and ED chiefs.
