Madras High Court criticized the CBI for biased and poor investigations, saying public trust is falling. The Court issued strict directions to help the agency rebuild its credibility.
Chennai: On April 28, the Madras High Court made strong observations about the current working style of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A bench led by Justice KK Ramakrishnan stated that the investigation methods and culture within the CBI have become so poor that the agency is now being openly criticised by the public for its biased and unfair investigations.
“Nowadays the working culture of the CBI has reduced to the level of being criticized by everyone for their lopsided investigation … … CBI officers think they have sky high powers and no one can question them. Hence, people feel their working culture is plummeting down and this Court also finds the said allegations have some reason and, this Court in order to restore the trust of the people over the CBI, is inclined to give the following suggestions to the director of CBI to have a relook and revamp their programme of investigation to regain the original image in the vision of the people of India.”
The Court issued several important directions aimed at bringing back the people’s trust in the CBI. These suggestions focus on better supervision of investigations, legal support, and use of modern science and technology by the agency.
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- The Director of the CBI shall meticulously supervise the array of the accused in the FIR and final report
- The Director shall consciously supervise the progress of the investigation constantly watching the collection of the materials and omission of the materials;
- The Director shall appoint a separate legal team to indoctrinate the investigating officer about the legal principles formulated by the Supreme Court time to time and ensure the suitability of the registration of the case in order to avoid registration of innocuous cases
- The Director shall take appropriate measures to equip the investigating officer with the scientific advancement.
The High Court gave these directions while hearing appeals filed by eight people, including a former Chief Manager of a Tirunelveli-based bank. These individuals had been found guilty by a trial court in 2019 for allegedly misusing their authority to fraudulently sanction and take loans worth around ₹2 crore, against proper guidelines.
However, the High Court found that the CBI had not done a proper investigation and decided to acquit all the accused.
“This court finds lapse in every stage and this is a classical case to show the CBI had conducted a shoddy investigation.”
The Court strongly criticised the trial court for only acquitting some of the accused even though the evidence against all of them was more or less the same. It agreed with the arguments made by the accused’s lawyers that the CBI’s probe and prosecution were unfair and had led to injustice.
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“This court (is) inclined to accept the argument of the learned counsel for the appellants that there was unfair prosecution and investigation which resulted in miscarriage of justice.”
Justice Ramakrishnan added that he had seen many similar issues in other CBI-related cases recently. He said that the CBI often does selective investigation and leaves out senior officers while only charging lower-level ones.
“In most of the cases, even though strong materials were found, the CBI deleted the high level officers and arrayed only low grade officers … In number of cases, even they have not obtained the handwriting expert’s opinion and other scientific expert’s opinion … Even in number of cases, there is corruption allegation against the officers of the CBI. In one case, one of the party in person produced the authenticated electronic evidence to prove the demand of bribe amount by a CBI Officer … This is only the tip of the ice beg.”
The judge also noted that the CBI is not using modern scientific tools and technology to investigate properly. This is harming the quality of investigations and raising serious doubts about fairness.
“Therefore, question of fair investigation is in peril. This has eroded the faith of people with CBI. People have more faith in the Special Investigation Department than in the Courts that the Special Investigation Officers will be honest, upright and impartial and their conduct should be pure as mother’s milk. It should regain the said faith so that it does not cause any harm to the reputation attached with them.”
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In this case, various senior advocates and lawyers appeared for the appellants, including Senior Advocate John Sathyan (briefed by M/s. Veera Associates), Senior Counsel T. Lajapathi Roy (for M/s. Lajapathi Roy Associates), Senior Advocate V. Kathirvelu, Advocate Johnny Basha, Advocates Devasena, RM Somasundaram, and G Mohan Kumar. Special Public Prosecutor M. Karunanithi appeared for the CBI.
This judgment sends a clear message that the judiciary expects the CBI to act with fairness, integrity, and professionalism. The directions issued by the Madras High Court are meant to ensure that the agency returns to its original reputation of being an unbiased and reliable investigative body.
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