Supreme Court objects to CBI describing itself as ‘Republic of India’ in the petition

The Supreme Court on Friday (October 20) strongly reprimanded the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for filing its petitions and affidavits in the court as ‘Republic of India’.

The division bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Pankaj Mittal said, ‘Why have you filed the application in the form of ‘Republic of India’? You are not representing the Union or the Republic. You cannot file your petitions like this.

The court reminded the CBI that its job under the law is to investigate illegalities of both the central and state governments as an independent agency.

Following the observations, the bench ordered the cause-title of the case to be changed by the court registry by removing the words ‘Republic of India’. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati agreed with the court’s direction.

It is pertinent to recall that in November 2021, the West Bengal government had moved the Supreme Court questioning the jurisdiction of the CBI to investigate and register First Information Reports (FIRs) in the state.

Instead of making the autonomous agency CBI a party in the case, the West Bengal government had made the Central Government a party. The central government had then said that it had no power to interfere in the exercise of its powers by an autonomous body like the CBI.

However, according to Hindustan Times, information received from the Supreme Court website shows that there are many cases where the CBI has presented itself as ‘Republic of India’ instead of ‘CBI’.

The pending hearing pertains to the CBI’s appeal against the bail granted to Subhra Kundu, former actress and wife of Gautam Kundu, who runs a chit-fund company named Rose Valley. The company is accused of a scam worth crores of rupees, which is currently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The alleged scam of Rs 17,000 crore is the biggest scam in the history of West Bengal. In 2014, the Supreme Court had ordered the CBI to investigate the role of influential people involved in money laundering in the state.

According to the investigating agency, the chit fund group had set up 27 companies, out of which only 12 were active. The group is accused of defrauding gullible investors by promising inflated returns of between 8 percent and 27 percent on their investments. At present investigation is going on in both West Bengal and Odisha.

In August 2022, the Odisha High Court had granted bail to Subhra Kundu, which the CBI has challenged in the apex court.