New Delhi:The CBI, in last three years, declined six requests by state governments to probe cases referred by them, the government said on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha.
He said that in the last three years, six requests received from state governments for investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were regretted.
Singh said the cases were not taken up on grounds of constraints such as existing workload, shortage of resources or the matter not having any international or inter-state ramifications or the level of complexity requiring investigation by the agency among others.
He also said the Centre has challenged before the Supreme Court an order of the Madras High Court directing to make the CBI an independent body like the Election Commission or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Charging the agency with dragging its feet whenever the court wanted to hand over serious cases, saying it lacked the resources and manpower to take up the probe, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court had said last year that this has "been parroted" for a long time before the court whenever it wanted to hand over investigation of certain cases to the CBI.
The agency should be made independent with functional autonomy without the administrative control of government, the court had said.
"A Special Leave Petition (SLP) has been filed before Hon'ble Supreme Court of India challenging the order dated August 17, 2021 passed by High Court of Judicature at Madras, Madurai Bench in W.P. (MD) No.17716 of 2020 and W.M.P.(MD) No.14803 of 2020," Singh said.