Amid strong protests from opposition members, two bills were tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday which extend the tenures of Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate up to a maximum of five years from the present two years.
Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh introduced the two bills, the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill to extend the tenures of Directors of the CBI and ED to maximum five years.
The two bills seek to replace Ordinances issued during the intersession period. Congress member Shashi Tharoor opposed the two bills saying that the move to extend the tenures of the directors of central investigative agencies were in disregard of the Supreme Court observations.
Tharoor said the apex Court had observed that extension of tenure granted to officers who have attained the age of superannuation should be done only in rare and exceptional cases and the government move was malafide.
Trinamool member Saugata Roy also opposed the move contending that both the ED and CBI were two arms of the government that are used to harass opposition leaders.
Other members who opposed the move are Congress members K Suresh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and RSP member N K Premachandran. The members said piecemeal extensions would lead to officers’ loyalty to the government.
Seeking to allay the apprehensions of the opposition members, Jitendra Singh said the earlier laws only fixed a minimum limit on the tenures of Directors of CBI and ED.
“The earlier laws never put any limit on the tenures, we are limiting it to five years,” Singh said. The minister said the Ordinances were necessitated as Parliament remained disrupted.
The ED Director is appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a committee chaired by the Central Vigilance Commissioner and members of Vigilance Commissioners, Home Secretary, Secretary DOPT and Revenue Secretary.
The Director of CBI on the other hand is selected on the basis of the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief of Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition.
