New Delhi:
The government on Wednesday filed an affidavit on the autonomy of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Supreme Court.
The government says that the CBI director will be chosen by a committee that is headed by the Prime Minister and includes the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge.
An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer will be selected for CBI director on the basis of seniority, integrity and experience in the investigation of anti-corruption and criminal cases.
This is one of the recommendations made by a group of ministers that were assigned in May to examine how to check political control of India's top law enforcement agency. They have also suggested more financial and administrative control for the CBI.
The CBI has been under fire since its director, Ranjit Sinha, told the Supreme Court in May that then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and other senior officials, including one from the prime minister's office, had amended a report that the court had requested on the CBI's "Coalgate" investigation.
