In a swipe at Centre, Madras High Court’s ‘Caged Parrot’ reference to CBI

The Madras High Court on Tuesday issued a slew of directions to the union government regarding the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation and stressed the need to make the agency autonomous. Calling for an end to its “Caged Parrot” status, the Court said, CBI should be an autonomous body like the Comptroller and Auditor General that reports only to parliament.

Issuing 12-point directives to the Centre, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi said “This is an attempt to release the caged parrot”.

The “caged parrot” metaphor for CBI was first used by the Supreme Court in 2013 during the proceedings of the Coalfield allocation cases.

how the Supreme Court had described the agency during a hearing of the Coalfield allocation cases in 2013. That time, the BJP, which was in the opposition, accused the agency of being controlled by the Congress-led government. That time, opposition BJP had alleged that the Congress was controlling the agency.

Also Read: Corruption in FCI may spiral out of control, warns Parliamentary Standing Committee

The Court observed that it is only when the CBI is given a statutory status, “the autonomy of CBI would be ensured,” Bar and Bench reported. “The Government of India is directed to consider and take a decision for the enactment of a separate Act giving statutory status with more powers and jurisdiction to CBI at the earliest,” the court said in one of ist directions. The Court also sought a separate budgetary allocation for CBI.

Expressing concern over the shortage of manpower in the agency, the High Court said “…Very sadly, the CBI is dragging its feet, whenever there is a demand for (an) inquiry, on the ground that resources and manpower available with it are restricted and, therefore, it cannot conduct investigations. This is the usual stereotypical defence of the CBI before courts.” It further directed the CBI director to send a detailed proposal seeking increase in divisions/wings as well as strength of officers within six week.