New Delhi: A five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday commenced hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of courts ordering CBI probes into various incidents occurring in different states of the country.

Opening the arguments for West Bengal Government senior counsel K K Venugopal told the Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices R V Raveendran, D K Jain, P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, that neither the High Court, nor the apex court, has the power to order a CBI probe into alleged scandals or on any other issue.

He claimed that the power to order a CBI probe is solely vested with the respective state governments and even the Central Government had no power to order a probe by the Central agency unless the state concerned gave its consent.

As per Section 5 amp; 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, under which the CBI has been constituted, the agency can conduct a probe in any state only with prior consent of the said government.

However, in recent years, the Supreme Court and also various High Courts had been ordering probes by the CBI into high-profile cases.

West Bengal is the main petitioner in this case as it had taken exception to the Calcutta High Court order for a CBI probe into the Midnapore firing incidents in which several Trinamool Congress workers were killed.
Source : DNA