Growing cases of arrests of officers of central probe agencies by state police landed the Supreme Court on Friday in a classic quandary. It pitched for balance between competing objectives of protecting the Centre’s functionaries from vengeful actions of state police which could trigger a constitutional crisis, while not restraining state police from probing allegations of corruption either.
This vexing issue cropped up while hearing a case related to the arrest of an ED officer by Tamil Nadu police for alleged corruption. Hearing the case, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Surya Kant said the moot question was if the officer from central govt should be arrested by state police. But it added if central govt had given permission to proceed against that officer, it was a different scenario altogether, it said.
Additional Advocate General for Tamil Nadu Amit Anand Tiwari told the bench that the ED officer was caught red-handed accepting Rs 20 lakh bribe and that investigation in the case was almost complete.
Tiwari objected when the accused officer’s counsel attempted to interject, saying the accused could not have a say in the matter of investigation or which agency should investigate a crime.
The bench accepted this point but added that the accused had a right to fair investigation.
While extending the interim bail granted to the arrested ED officer till further orders, the top court said that each and every component has exclusive domains of jurisdiction in a federal structure and it should be allowed to retain it. The apex court said that there is a need to strike a balance between two competing aspects of jurisdiction.
The bench finally said, “This is a classic case of state vs. the Union and we will consider the larger federal structure scheme and determine the mechanism for investigation into such cases.”
