Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation

The director of the Central Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an Indian federal crime investigating agency, who is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The CBI is the agency within the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, under the Government of India. The director reports to the Minister concerned.

Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation
Seal of the Central Bureau of Investigation
Incumbent Praveen Sood, IPS since 23 May 2023 (2023-05-23)
Central Bureau of Investigation
Reports to	Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (or the Prime Minister)
Seat	CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi
Appointer	The Government of India (with recommendations from the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Opposition leader[a] and the Chief Justice of India[b])
Term length	Two years Renewable thrice (one year each)
Constituting instrument	The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946
Precursor	Inspector-General of the Delhi Special Police Establishment
Formation	1 April 1963; 62 years ago (1963-04-01)
First holder	D. P. Kohli, IPS
Website	www.cbi.gov.in

The current CBI director is Praveen Sood, who has held his position since 25 May 2023.

Term of office

The term for the director of CBI is initially fixed for two years. The director is appointed by the Union Government on the advice and consent from the Appointment Committee, as per the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DPSE) Act, 1946, and amended through the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, 2003 and The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. The term can be renewed by the Committee up to one year with not more than three years of extension.^[1]

Appointment

The Appointment Committee appoints the director from the list nominated by the Selection Committee team. The team consists of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (ex-officio chairperson), two members of the Central Vigilance Commission, the Home Secretary, and the Personnel Secretary of India. The director must be a senior Indian Police Service officer and in the rank of Director General of Police (DGP).^[1]

After that, the Appointment Committee will select the name from the list. The committee consist of the Prime Minister of India (as chairperson), the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (or the leader of single largest opposition party, as amended by DSPE (Amendment) Act, 2014 during the Modi government) and the Chief Justice of India (or a Supreme Court Judge nominated by him).^[2]

Responsibility

As head of the agency, the director supervises all the work in the CBI and is responsible for the constitution of investigating teams for probing cases. The Selection Committee consults with the director before the appointment committee for the appointments to the other officers in the CBI, with the rank of a superintendent or above.^[3][4]

Dismissals

The Government can dismiss the director through the recommendations of the same Appointment Committee. D. Sen was removed after charges were made against him for the misuse of power during the emergency period declared by Indira Gandhi, as per the report made by Shah Commission.^[5][6]

In September 2018, director Alok Verma's deputy Rakesh Asthana filed a complaint against him in Central Vigilance Commission. Verma charged Asthana with bribery charges. Later, Narendra Modi's government asked both of them "on forced leave" and appointed Mannem Nageswara Rao for an interim period. The Supreme Court of India, in January 2019, reinstated Verma as the director. But after a few days, the committee, with a 2:1 vote, decided to remove Verma from office. Modi and Supreme Court judge Arjan Kumar Sikri consented in favor, while Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge dissented.^[7]

List of the directors

No.	Name of the director	Start of tenure	End of tenure	Duration of service	Prime Minister during appointment		Ref.
1.	D. P. Kohli	1 April 1963 (1963-04-01)	31 May 1968 (1968-05-31)	5 years, 60 days		Jawaharlal Nehru	[8]
2.	F. V. Arul	31 May 1968 (1968-05-31)	6 May 1971 (1971-05-06)	2 years, 340 days		Indira Gandhi	[9]
3.	D. Sen	6 May 1971	29 March 1977	5 years, 327 days
4.	S. N. Mathur	29 March 1977	2 May 1977	34 days		Morarji Desai
5.	C. V. Narsimhan	2 May 1977	25 November 1977	207 days
6.	John Lobo	25 November 1977	30 June 1979	1 year, 217 days
7.	R. D. Singh	30 June 1979	24 January 1980	208 days
8.	J. S. Bajwa	24 January 1980	28 February 1985	5 years, 35 days		Indira Gandhi
9.	M. G. Katre	28 February 1985	31 October 1989	4 years, 245 days		Rajiv Gandhi
10.	A. P. Mukherjee	31 October 1989	11 January 1990	106 days
-	R. Shekar (acting)	11 January 1990	14 February 1990	34 days		V. P. Singh
-	Vijay Karan (acting)	14 February 1990		1 day
11.	S. K. Dutta	14 February 1990	31 July 1993	3 years, 167 days
12.	K. Vijayarama Rao	31 July 1993	31 July 1996	3 years, 0 days		P. V. Narasimha Rao	[10]
13.	Joginder Singh	31 July 1996	30 June 1997	334 days		H. D. Deve Gowda
14.	R. C. Sharma	30 June 1997	31 January 1998	215 days		I. K. Gujral
-	D. R. Karthikeyan (acting)	31 January 1998	31 March 1998	59 days		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
-	T. N. Mishra (acting)	31 March 1998	4 January 1999	279 days
15.	R. K. Raghavan	4 January 1999	1 April 2001	2 years, 87 days
16.	P. C. Sharma	1 April 2001	6 December 2003	2 years, 249 days
17.	U. S. Misra	6 December 2003	6 December 2005	2 years, 0 days
18.	Vijay Shanker Tiwari	12 December 2005	31 July 2008	2 years, 232 days		Manmohan Singh
19.	Ashwani Kumar	2 August 2008	30 November 2010	2 years, 120 days
20.	A P Singh	30 November 2010	30 November 2012	2 years, 0 days			[11]
21.	Ranjit Sinha	3 December 2012	2 December 2014	1 year, 364 days			[12]
22.	Anil Sinha	3 December 2014	2 December 2016	1 year, 365 days		Narendra Modi	[13]
-	Rakesh Asthana (interim)	3 December 2016[c]	1 February 2017	60 days			[14]
23.	Alok Verma	1 February 2017	1 February 2019[d]	2 years, 0 days			[16][17]
-	M. Nageswara Rao (interim)	24 October 2018[d]	10 January 2019	74 days			[18]
24.	Rishi Kumar Shukla	2 February 2019	2 February 2021	2 years, 0 days			[19]
-	Praveen Sinha (interim)	2 February 2021	25 May 2021	112 days			[20]
25.	Subodh Kumar Jaiswal	25 May 2021	25 May 2023	2 years, 0 days			[21]
26.	Praveen Sood	25 May 2023	Incumbent	2 years, 79 days			[22]

Notes

1. If there are no official opposition in the Lok Sabha, then the leader of the single largest opposition will be there.
2. If the Chief Justice is unavailable then a senior judge of the Supreme Court of India nominated by him will be there.
3. As Additional Charge, while serving as additional director in CBI.
4. Rao was appointed as interim director when Special Director Asthana and Director Verma were asked to take leave by the Union Government, when both of them faced allegations against each other.^[15]