An amendment in Delhi Police Special Establishment (DSPE) Act 2014 was passed by the Parliament on Thursday clearing the way for the appointment of the next CBI chief. The tenure of the present CBI chief ends on December 2 and the Government has the urgency to pick up his successor.
The Bill that was passed by lok Sabha on Wednesday got clearance from Rajya Sabha on Thursday. It aims to provide for inclusion of leader of the single largest Opposition party in lok Sabha the three-member committee that selects the CBI Director since there is no recognised leader of the Opposition in the current lok Sabha. The Committee has Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India as other members. The amendment also makes it easy for the collegium to go ahead with the appointments even if one of the three members of the selection panel is not present.
However, the Bill was passed only after a bit of political tug-of-war between leader of the House Arun Jaitely and Deputy leader of Opposition Anand Sharma. The clause for doing away with the need for attendance of all the three members of the collegiums was objected to by Sharma, who felt it is aimed at keeping Congress out of the process. Sharma also said the amendment to include “leader of largest party in Opposition” was not needed had the government recognized Congress as Opposition party in lok Sabha. “The leader of the House has said that there is no recognized leader of the Opposition. That was a political decision,” Sharma said.