SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS STATE POLICE POWER TO PROBE CORRUPTION AGAINST CENTRAL EMPLOYEES

NEWS: The Supreme Court has held that the state police can investigate the offences of bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the central government employees without an approval or consent from the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Definition

‘Police Station’: Defined in Clause (s) of Section 2 of the Code to mean: “any post or place declared generally or specially by the state government, to be a police Station, and includes any local area specified by the State Government in this behalf”

HIGHLGHTS

• Section 17 of the PC Act does not exclude or prevents the state police or a special agency of the state from registering a crime or investigating cases relating to bribery, corruption and misconduct against central government employees.
• The relation between the CBI and the State Police is supplementary to each other
• It is for convenience and to avoid duplication of work that the CBI – a specialised investigating agency under the Special Police Establishment – is entrusted with the task of investigation of the cases of corruption and bribery against the employees of central government and its Undertakings.
• The Criminal Procedure Code (now BNSS) is the parent statute: Provides for investigation, inquiry into and trial of cases and unless there is specific provision in another statute to indicate a different procedure to be followed, its provisions cannot be displaced
• Section 156 of CrPC authorises any police officer in charge of a police station to investigate a cognizable offence without the order of the Magistrate