Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has said the government will seriously and promptly look into the issue of legality of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) . Inaugurating the CBI's international Conference on Evolving Common Strategies to Combat Corruption and Crime in New Delhi today, Dr. Singh said, the centre will do all that is necessary to establish the need for the agency.

Dr. Singh's statement came in the wake of Gauhati High court's verdict holding setting up of CBI as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, however, has stayed the ruling.

On the autonomy of the CBI and other police organizations, Dr. Singh said it is already guaranteed in the investigation. He, however, said that if anything more needs to be done to insulate the investigating process from external interference, government will not hesitate to do it. The Prime Minister also reminded that CBI and other investigating agencies are part of the executive.

Terming the autonomy acquiring political overtones as unfortunate , he expressed distress over sensitive investigations becoming subjects of running media debates which is not in the interest of the ongoing investigation. He said that investigation into cases of policy making and administration should be done with great care and error of judgement must be distinguished from criminal misconduct.

The Prime Minister said it is important to look at the issue of corruption in the correct perspective and the fight against it should not only be confined to investigation and prosecution of corruption related offences once they happen. Dr. Singh said that the economic reforms of the 1990s followed by periods of fast economic growth have led to growing exchange of people, ideas, goods, services, and capital across the country and national boundaries. It has also thrown up new areas of crime and corruption and made the existing crimes even more complex. He said to keep pace with the aspirations of the people, the government has taken several legal and administrative measures in the last 9 years.

AIR correspondent reports that the Prime Minister also released commemorative postage stamps on the golden jubilee celebration of CBI. Addressing the session, Minister of Communication and IT, Kapil Sibal expressed concern over corruption in public life.

Meanwhile, BJP has accused the government of misusing the CBI. Reacting to Prime Minister's remarks on the agency, party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in New Delhi that the CBI has been used as a tool by the Congress led government. She said that government has to work out ways to establish autonomy of CBI.