Taking a stand at variance with the government, the CBI on Tuesday informed the supreme court that the agency should not be asked to approach the government for permission to interrogate or investigate top officers in a court monitored case.

On August 16, Governance Now had reported how the CBI had stood its ground and had contradicted government’s position on a number of issues relating to its autonomy. (Read: To free or not to free 'caged parrot': CBI, UPA govt fight turf war)

The court will scrutinize the stands taken by the CBI and the government on Thursday.

CBI told the apex court that sanction from the government under section 6A (permission to investigate joint secretary level officers and above) of the Delhi special police establishment act was not necessary when the court was monitoring a probe.

CBI made this submission in an affidavit filed ahead of Thursday’s hearing of the coal block allocation case in SC. CBI’s stand, which is against government’s position that giving a free hand to the investigative agency could leave officials vulnerable to malicious prosecution and could thus lead to policy paralysis, sets the stage for a bitter standoff with the government.

"There is no requirement of sanction for prosecution in cases where the court has directed investigation and is monitoring the investigation of a case," the affidavit, said.

The CBI in its affidavit, as reported by Governance Now on August 16, also insisted that the director should be given the status of an ex-officio secretary to address the agency's functional needs, a demand that has been rejected by the government.

"It is necessary that the director, CBI, should be vested with ex-officio powers of secretary, government of India, reporting directly to the Hon'ble minister without having to go through the DoPT," the CBI said in its affidavit. 

The supreme court had called CBI a caged parrot singing to its masters tune during the course of hearing the coal block allocation case. The court had hauled the investigative agency for sharing its probe report on the scam with the government. It had asked the government and the CBI to come out with ways to make the agency truly autonomous.