New Delhi: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday dissented against the appointment of Rishi Kumar Shukla as the new Central Bureau of Investigation chief. He alleged that the 1983-batch Indian Police Service officer and former chief of Madhya Pradesh police had no experience in handling anti-corruption cases.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said Shukla’s appointment was a violation of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, under which the CBI director was appointed.
Shukla was appointed by a prime minister-led selection committee, comprising Kharge and Chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
Over the last few months, India’s premier investigative agency has been in the middle of one controversy after another. First, the infighting between former CBI chief Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana took a political turn when both the officers were summarily dismissed from their roles. Then, the government appointed an interim director, M. Nageswara Rao, whose decisions to transfer around 13 CBI officers in-charge of various corruption probes against Asthana drew much criticism.
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Even as the CBI’s autonomy was under scrutiny, the Supreme Court reprimanded the Union government last week for not appointing a full-time CBI director. The post was lying vacant since January 10, after Verma’s unceremonious dismissal.
With Kharge’s dissent, the debate around whether the Union government is influencing the CBI’s independent functioning may snowball into yet another political controversy.
In his dissent note, Kharge quoted the Supreme Court’s Vineet Narain judgement which said, “The Committee shall appoint an IPS officer on the basis of seniority, integrity, and experience in the field of anti-corruption.”
He said that even the DSPE Act mandates that the CBI director should have experience in handling anti-corruption cases.
Senior IPS officer Rishi Kumar Shukla was on Saturday appointed as the new CBI Director. Credit: PTI
Since Shukla has no such experience, Kharge said, his appointment was a violation of both the DSPE Act and the Supreme Court judgement, and the government only took Shukla’s seniority into account while selecting him.
He added that the selection committee could only appoint an officer who has “100 months or more experience in investigation and corruption”.
“Seniority cannot be the only criterion in an appointment to such a critical post and experience in anti-corruption cases and prior experience of having served in the organisation should also be considered seriously,” he wrote in his note.
He proposed that three senior IPS officers – S. Javed Ahmad, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar and Sandeep Lakhtakia – meet the requirements to become the CBI director.
He further said, “It is important to restore the image and integrity of the CBI as a premier institution that is fighting against corruption. Hence, prior experience of having served in the institution should be given primacy after having shortlisted candidates based on their seniority and their ACR.”
Kharge’s dissent note.
Responding to Kharge’s objections, Union minister Jitendra Singh hit out at the Congress, claiming that the leader of opposition tried to include officers of his choice in the shortlist by manipulating the selection criteria.
Singh also said that the chief justice of India fully endorsed Shukla’s appointment.