The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led West Bengal government on Monday restored the “general consent” for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the corruption cases, nearly eight years after the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) withdrew the permission, people familiar with the development said.
“...the government of West Bengal in pursuance of section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, hereby gives its consent to the extension of powers and jurisdiction of the members of the DSPE in the whole of state of West Bengal for investigation of offences of classes of offences notified under section 3 of the Act, as amended from time to time, alleged to have been committed by employees of the Central government, central public sector units, and private persons...” the state government said in a notification.
The notification said the general consent is subject to a condition that no investigation shall be conducted by CBI against the public servants controlled by the West Bengal government without its prior permission.
Under the DSPE Act, the federal agency requires the consent of the state government to conduct an investigation within its jurisdiction. In the absence of such a “general consent”, CBI has to send specific case-wise requests to the state government to carry out investigations.
{{/usCountry}}Under the DSPE Act, the federal agency requires the consent of the state government to conduct an investigation within its jurisdiction. In the absence of such a “general consent”, CBI has to send specific case-wise requests to the state government to carry out investigations.
{{/usCountry}}The previous TMC government in the state blocked the CBI on November 16, 2018, and even fought a pitched battle in the Supreme Court on the issue. In July 2024, a division bench led by justice BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta ruled that the original suit filed by the West Bengal government challenging the jurisdiction of CBI within the state was maintainable.
Other than West Bengal, there were 11 other states, mostly ruled by the Opposition, that had withdrawn the general consent for CBI from 2017 alleging that the Centre was using the agency to target opponents as part of “political vendetta”. While Mizoram was the first state to withdraw the consent on July 17, 2015, West Bengal (in November 2018), Chhattisgarh (January 2019), Rajasthan (July 2020), Maharashtra (October 2020), Kerala, Jharkhand and Punjab (November 2020), Meghalaya (February 2022), Telangana (October 2022), Tamil Nadu (January 2023) and Karnataka (September 2024) similarly restricted the CBI’s ambit.
Mizoram, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and now West Bengal have since restored CBI’s powers.
A CBI officer, who asked not to be named, said - “It was a big challenge for us. Hundreds of our requests for case-to-case specific permissions have been pending with all these states. In West Bengal particularly, we were not able to take action under the prevention of corruption act. This development comes as a relief.”
In 2025, a parliamentary standing committee on personnel recommended a separate or a new law that will grant CBI the power to investigate cases without needing consent from the state governments.
The panel said that withdrawn general consent for CBI investigations limits severely its ability to investigate corruption and organised crime.