Bhopal:

The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday said the CBI requires written consent from the state before it can initiate inquiries in its jurisdiction. A notification to this effect was published on Tuesday.

The order has retrospective effect; it will have been in effect from July 1.

Specifically, the CBI now needs written clearance from the Madhya Pradesh administration to investigate private individuals, government officials, or any entities within the state.

According to Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, the CBI is required to seek consent from a state government to conduct an investigation in its jurisdiction.

BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh joins a long list of states, ruled mostly by opposition parties, such as Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, and Telangana, which now require the CBI to seek permission.

However, in October 2022, the Maharashtra government had reversed an earlier order.

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Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose Shiv Sena is backed by the BJP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, reversed an order passed by his predecessor, Uddhav Thackeray and the MVA that includes the Congress.

States’ directions for the CBI to ask permission before starting an inquiry on its soil made headlines last year amid allegations by the opposition that the ruling BJP uses federal agencies to target rival political leaders, particularly before an election.

In December last year the centre responded sharply to states’ actions, insisting requiring the CBI to ask for permission had severely limited its powers to investigate cases. A Parliamentary panel said there was a need to enact a law so the agency could probe cases without state “interference”.

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At the same time, the panel also acknowledged there need to safeguards to ensure objectivity and impartiality in functioning of the CBI so the states don’t complain of discrimination.

Those charges of discrimination were underlined in November when Bengal’s ruling Trinamool accused the CBI of registering cases and launching investigations without its consent.

The union government said the agency is an “independent legal person” and that it had no “control” over its actions. The Bengal government had withdrawn permission to the CBI as far back as 2018.