New Delhi, May 14: The Centre on Wednesday extended the tenure of CBI chief Praveen Sood by one more year, beyond May 24, 2026.
This is his second extension in office.
Sood, 61, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Karnataka cadre, took over as the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 25, 2023, for a two-year term. He was given a one-year extension last year.
The decision to extend his tenure was taken in a meeting of the selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), based on the recommendations of the selection committee, approved Sood’s extension for a period of one year beyond May 24, 2026, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
Gandhi had issued a strong dissent note on the process for selecting the CBI director and said he did not want to be part of a “biased exercise”.
Sood has been given an extension to ensure continuity in the top leadership of the CBI, which is probing several high-profile and politically sensitive matters, including the recent National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET UG paper leak case, officials said.
Known for his hands-on approach, Sood has been meticulously supervising investigations in these crucial cases, they said.
Born in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district in 1964, he joined the IPS at the age of 22 years after completing his civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
His extension came under the provisions of a 2021 law, following amendments in the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, which governs the functioning of the CBI.
The Parliament had, on December 14, 2021, passed the DSPE (Amendment) Bill, 2021, to extend the tenure of the CBI director to a maximum of five years. It became the law after receiving the president’s assent on December 18, 2021.
The amended DSPE law allows the government to extend the CBI director’s tenure “in public interest” on the recommendation of the selection committee, “up to one year at a time”.
However, “no such extension shall be granted after the completion of a period of five years in total, including the period mentioned in the initial appointment”, it says.
The Supreme Court, in its 1997 verdict in the VineetNarain versus Union of India case, had issued a specific order that the CBI director shall have a minimum tenure of two years.
Former CBI director R K Raghavan was the first to have been appointed for a fixed two-year tenure. He took over as the head of the federal probe agency on January 4, 1999. Incidentally, his two-year term was extended beyond the initial two years up to his date of superannuation, that is, April 30, 2001, officials said.
Similarly, the two-year terms of the then CBI directors Vijay Shankar (from December 12, 2005, to July 31, 2008) and Ashwani Kumar (from August 2, 2008, to November 30, 2010) were also extended up to their respective dates of superannuation. ( PTI )
