Tread cautiously in policy matters, Manmohan to CBI

Addressing, the international conference on "Evolving Common Strategies to Combat Corruption and Crime" organized by CBI on its Golden Jubilee function, he said decision-making in a world of uncertainty "is a highly risky operation".

"While actions that prima facie show malafide intent or pecuniary gain should certainly be questioned, pronouncing decisions taken with no ill-intention within the prevailing policy as criminal misconduct would certainly be flawed and excessive," the Prime Minister said.

Singh's comment come in the backdrop of an FIR registered by CBI against former Coal Secretary P C Parakh accusing him of criminal misconduct for allegedly reversing his decision on the allocation of Talabira coal block to Hindalco. "Policy-making is a multi-layered and complex process in the government, and will increasingly become more so, and therefore I don't think it would be to appropriate for a police agency to sit in judgement over policy formulation, without any evidence of malafide," he said.

Meanwhile, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said allocation and acquisition of natural resources is a "particularly contentious issue" in current Indian and global context. "While there is a need for fast economic growth necessitating need for quick decisions on exploitation of natural resources the challenge for policy makers is to do it in a manner that there is no scope for impropriety," he said. CBI is probing a number of cases related to allocation of natural resources like spectrum, coal and natural gas.