Supreme Court stay comes as a huge relief for govt

NEW DELHI: The relief in government is palpable. Though the Supreme Court stay on the Gauhati high court order holding CBI legally untenable was anticipated, there was a lot riding on the apex court's words.

To begin with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at a CBI function on Monday on the occasion of the premier agency completing 50 years hung in balance, with the HC ruling threatening to ruin the event.

Senior officials only half-joked when they said there would have been no CBI for the PM to address while the agency's director R C Sinha had been rendered jobless since Wednesday.

The government prepared its case diligently as a mishap would have led to enormous loss of face, particularly in view of damaging reports that vulnerabilities in CBI's legal framework were ignored for years.

Having received a crucial reprieve - the Opposition would have feasted on the government's discomfiture - the Centre is now looking to wipe the dust off a long pending proposal to legislate a full-fledged CBI Act to avoid future peril.

The task, however, is not easy as the government may have to consider recommendations of a select committee such as a "collegium" system for appointing the CBI director - a measure the Centre has not accepted.

A legislation will have to pass the test in Parliament and with the approaching winter session expected to be highly volatile given the proximity to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, it is unclear whether such a law stands much of a chance.

The Gauhati HC order was a bolt from the blue and the government scrambled to counter the court's view that the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act doesn't empower it to set up a police organization to probe corruption and inter-state crime.

That the HC has misunderstood the law and that the Centre does indeed have the power to constitute a body like the CBI on the basis of a resolution is yet to be settled, but the government has lived to fight another day.

Lacunae in the 1963 resolution and the ministry of home affairs' reported submission in the Gauhati HC that a new legislation is the best solution to put CBI on a firmer footing is expected to receive closer attention.

CBI is to file its views before the SC as well even though on Wednesday the petitioner seeking relief was the department of personnel and training that is under the administrative charge of the PM.