Order

Y.K. Sabharwal, J.—In these petitions challenge is to the constitutional validity of Section 6-A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (for short, ‘the Act’). This Section was inserted in the Act w.e.f. 12th September, 2003. It, inter alia, provides for obtaining the previous approval of the Central Government for conduct of any inquiry or investigation for any offence alleged to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 where allegations relate to officers of the level of Joint Secretary and above. Before insertion of Section 6-A in the Act, the requirement to obtain prior approval of the Central Government was contained in a directive known as ‘Single Directive’ issued by the Government. The Single Directive was a consolidated set of instructions issued to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by various Ministries/Departments regarding modalities of initiating an inquiry or registering a case against certain categories of civil servants. The said directive was stated to have been issued to protect decision making level officers from the threat and ignominy of malicious and vexatious inquiries/investigations and to give protection to offi