Kolkata, June 8 (IANS) West Bengal government on Monday announced the official restoration of “general consent” or “standing clearance” to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate any probe on corruption charges in the state without taking prior permission of the state government.

However, the state government has kept a rider in restoring this “general consent” or “standing clearance” to the CBI, under which the central probe agency will have to take prior permission from the state government if the charge is against any state government employee.

The “general consent” or “standing clearance” to the CBI to initiate a probe in the state was withdrawn by the previous Trinamool Congress-ruled, Mamata Banerjee-led state cabinet in 2018.

In that case, the CBI was left with two options for initiating a probe in West Bengal. Either it had to individually seek permission from the state government to initiate a probe in individual cases, or it could start a probe following any court order.

On Monday, the new West Bengal government set aside the move by the previous regime and restored “general consent” or “standing clearance” to the CBI under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.

To recall, even after the withdrawal of the “general consent” or “standing clearance” to the CBI in 2018, the agency was still registering FIRs in several cases involving corruption charges.

The then Trinamool Congress government approached the Supreme Court opposing the CBI’s move. Even in cases where the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe, the previous state government opposed the order at the Supreme Court.

The Union government then claimed that the powers of any state government were not unlimited and no state government could adopt such a step to shield accused persons or for political motives.

–IANS

src/dan