Telangana has become the 10th State to withdraw the general consent to the CBI, which means the agency has to take prior consent for a probe from the State Government on a case-to-case basis.

In fact, the Telangana Government had withdrawn the general consent in an order issued on August 30 itself but it came to public knowledge only after the State’s Additional Advocate General (AAG) informed the Telangana High Court about it during arguments on a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI probe into the TRS MLAs’ poaching  case.

The development comes after the BJP and TRS have indulged in a war of words over several issues in the recent past leading to much acrimony between the two parties.

The three persons, who allegedly tried to “poach” four TRS legislators, were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on Saturday.

The Government’s Home (Special) Department had issued an order-GO Ms No 51 on August 30 withdrawing all previous general consents issued by it under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the AAG informed the court.

“…The learned Additional Advocate General submitted that the petitioner does not have locus standi to file this writ petition. GO Ms No 51, Home (Special) Department, dated 30.08.2022 was issued by the Government of Telangana withdrawing all previous general consents issued by the State Government under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (for short ‘the Act’),” the High Court said in its order.

Before Telangana, nine other States that have withdrawn consent to the CBI are namely Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Mizoram.