Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that the premier investigation agency of the country, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should get a statutory status through legislation to free it from administrative control.

Gogoisaid that the statutory status should be equivalent to that of the nationalauditor, the Comptroller & Auditor General and advocated administrative andfinancial autonomy for the agency.

Participatingat an event organized by CBI on Tuesday, Gogoi said that it is one of the fewinvestigative agencies that have managed to carve out a special place foritself adding that "Why is it that whenever there are no political overtones tothe case, the CBI does a good job?"

He alsostated that the public attention is more often than not drawn to failure thansuccess of any public institution. He further said that it is true that theagency has not been able to meet the standards of judicial scrutiny in a numberof high-profile and politically sensitive cases but it is also true that suchlapses may not have happened infrequently adding that such instances reflectsystematic issues and indicate a deep mismatch between institutionalaspirations, organizational design, working culture and governing politics.