NGO moves Supreme Court, seeks appointment of regular CBI chief

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to forthwith appoint a regular CBI director.

The petition, filed by NGO Common Cause, has alleged that the government has failed to appoint a regular CBI director as per section 4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, on the expiry of term of Rishi Kumar Shukla on February 2 and instead appointed Praveen Sinha as an interim director of the premier investigating agency.

The plea, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, has also sought a direction to the Centre to initiate and complete the process of selection of the CBI director well in advance, at least one to two months before the date on which the vacancy to the post is about to occur.

"The director of the CBI is the final authority in the organization. He supervises all the work in the CBI and is responsible for constitution of investigating teams for probing cases.

Hence, this court and later on Parliament have made determined efforts to enhance the functional autonomy of the CBI director and limit the extent of executive discretion in the matter of appointment of this key functionary," the plea said.