CBI seeks general consent from 14 states to probe cybercrime, year after panel flagged delays
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has written to the chief secretaries of 14 states seeking "general consent" to investigate cybercrime offences under the Information Technology Act without needing approval for each individual case.
The states approached include Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
The move follows an earlier parliamentary standing committee recommendation to amend the governing law so that CBI cybercrime probes would not need state-by-state consent, given that cybercrime is inherently borderless.
The CBI has flagged that case-by-case approvals are time-consuming, strain manpower and resources, and can compromise investigation quality — especially relevant for cyber offences where evidence and suspects are often spread across multiple states.
General Consent under the DSPE Act, 1946
The CBI derives its investigative powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 — it has no independent statutory charter of its own. Under Section 6 of this Act, since the CBI's jurisdiction originally covered only Union Territories, it needs the concerned state government's consent to investigate a case within that state. States can give this consent in two forms: "general consent" (a standing, one-time approval covering all cases within a notified category) or case-specific consent (approval sought separately for each case, which is slower).
Key Details
- Statutory basis: Section 6, Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
- General consent, once granted, lets the CBI register and investigate cases in that state without repeated approvals; it can be withdrawn by the state government at any time via notification.
- Withdrawal does not retrospectively affect cases already registered while consent was in force, and does not block CBI from probing central government employees or cases with pan-India/multi-state links.
- As of recent counts, roughly six states (including Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh) maintain general consent for all offences, about eight states have formally withdrawn it, and the remainder extend only case-specific consent — West Bengal was among the first to withdraw general consent, in November 2018.
The 14 states being approached currently do not have blanket general consent for cybercrime offences specifically, forcing the CBI to seek case-by-case clearance for each cyber investigation — the delay the parliamentary panel flagged a year earlier.
Federalism and Central Investigating Agencies
Police and public order are State List subjects (List II, Seventh Schedule), which is why a central agency like the CBI needs state consent to operate within a state's territory — a structural tension between central agencies' pan-India mandate and constitutional federalism. This consent mechanism has repeatedly become a flashpoint in Centre-state relations, with several states withdrawing consent citing alleged misuse of central agencies; West Bengal's withdrawal even led to an original suit in the Supreme Court under Article 131 (Centre-state dispute jurisdiction).
Key Details
- "Police" and "Public Order" are Entry 1 and Entry 2 of the State List (Seventh Schedule to the Constitution).
- "Central Bureau of Investigation" and inter-state crime coordination fall under Union/Concurrent subjects, creating the need for the consent bridge.
- Article 131 allows a state to directly sue the Union in the Supreme Court over disputes involving legal rights — invoked by West Bengal in its challenge to CBI's continued jurisdiction after consent withdrawal.
The proposal to amend the DSPE Act so cybercrime probes bypass state consent altogether would mark a shift in this Centre-state balance specifically for a category of crime (cyber offences) that is intrinsically cross-jurisdictional.
- CBI approached chief secretaries of 14 states in July 2025 seeking general consent for cybercrime investigations under the IT Act.
- Roughly 6 states currently extend general consent for all offences; around 8 states have withdrawn general consent; the rest give only case-specific consent.
- West Bengal withdrew general consent to the CBI on 16 November 2018.
- The CBI operates under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946; Section 6 governs the consent requirement.