The Gauhati high court on Wednesday struck down the 1963 resolution setting up the Central Bureau of Investigation – the government’s primary investigating agency – and declared it unconstitutional, saying it should be stripped of its powers to probe, file first information reports, arrest suspects and file chargesheets [PTI].

The centre will move the Supreme Court against the judgement delivered by a division bench comprised of justices IA Ansari and Indira Shah, reported NDTV today. [Full text of judgment]

The court held:

“We hereby...set aside and quash the impugned Resolution, dated April 1, 1963, whereby CBI has been constituted... We do hold that the CBI is neither an organ nor a part of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) and the CBI cannot be treated as a ‘police force’ constituted under the DSPE Act, 1946."

The bench added that the resolution was not law because it was neither the result of a union cabinet decision nor was it part of executive instructions that have received presidential assent, but it was at best a set of departmental instructions which cannot be treated as law.

CBI director Ranjit Sinha told NDTV that the order would not affect ongoing investigations and trials as the CBI would seek an immediate stay on it.

The high court’s order was made in a petition challenging a CBI charge-sheet against a Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) employee, which ended up questioning the legitimacy of the agency for the first time in its 50-year existence.