CBI can’t act as a police force, Gauhati high court rules

NEW DELHI: In a startling decision which has ramifications for sensitive cases, the Gauhati high court has ruled that the Central Bureau of ...

NEW DELHI: In a startling decision which has ramifications for sensitive cases, the Gauhati high court has ruled that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was legally not a police force and stripped it of its powers to investigate crimes, arrest suspects and file charge-sheets.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) had, by a resolution dated April 1, 1963, constituted the CBI as a police force under the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946. The CBI had drawn its powers to investigate cases from the DSPE Act.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice IA Ansari and Justice Indira Shah on Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity ofDSPE Act but held that "the CBI is neither an organ nor a part of the DSPE and the CBI cannot be treated as a 'police force' constituted under the DSPE Act".

Unless this ruling is reviewed and amended by a higher court, the CBI will not function as a police force and will be unable to proceed further — in fact, not even file FIRs ...............

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