7 The Special Protection Group (SPG), till 2nd. June, 1988, functioned as a security group purely on the strength of an Executive Order without a legal cover under any legislative enactment.

It may be recalled that in the meeting of Committee of Secretaries held on March 21, 1985, it was, inter-alia, concluded that Ministry of Home Affairs, in consultation with the Department of Law, should make appropriate legal provisions to cover the functioning of SPU.

In pursuance to this, the Special Protection Group Bill, 1988 was introduced in Parliament; after it was passed by both Houses of Parliament, it received the assent of the President on 2nd June, 1988.

7.1 Shri P. Chidambaram, the then Minister of State for Internal Security, was involved in working out the modalities of the Bill and he cleared the Cabinet note for enactment of the SPG Act in 1988. It was on this note that the Cabinet took its decision.

(Deposition of P. Chidambaram dt. 23rd. Dec. 1996)

At this stage, questions were raised from some quarters regarding the need for such a legislation, especially in the light of the fact that the SPG had been effectively functioning for three years without a legislation. Shri V.P. Singh, during his deposition before the Commission, touched upon this. He stated :-

Deposition of V.P. Singh dt. 28.10.1996, Page No.4-6 :-

"The present Home Minister Shri Inderjit Gupta in his Parliamentary speech of May 11, 1988 .stated that 'as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, the only question that I would like to ask is why after three years since April 1985 when the SPG was formed, now suddenly it seems the Govt. has woken up to the fact that the Group which has been in existence and functioning for three years has no legal status and therefore it is necessary to have a statute in Parliament to give it the necessary legal status'."

7.1.1 An answer to this can be found in the considerations which provided the impetus for tabling of the Bill in the Parliament. Shri V.P. Singh, during his deposition before the Commission, has referred to extracts from the debate on the SPG Bill in Parliament, during which, Shri P. Chidambaram had made clear the underlying considerations . As per the deposition of Shri V.P. Singh :-

Deposition of Shri V.P.Singh dt. 04.10.1996, Page No.3 :-

"The debate took place on 10-11 May, 1988. Mr.Chidambaram said 'Let me make one thing clear at the outset. This bill is intended to protect the person who holds the Office of the Prime Minister. The Office of the Prime Minister is a pivot around which the polity of the country revolves'.... He prefaces the whole debate with the sentence 'I beg to move the bill to provide for the Constitution and regulation of an armed force of the Union for providing proximate security to the Prime Minister of India and the Members of his immediate family...."

While deposing before the Commission on this issue, Shri P. Chidambaram endorsed this opinion. He stated :-

Deposition of CW/27 Shri P. Chidambaram dt. 06.11.1996 (Page No.3-6)

"..The idea of enacting a separate Law regarding SPG was processed during my time.... After the assassination of Smt. I. Gandhi, the vulnerability of the person holding the office of P.M. became quite clear to many of us and therefore, we took the decision to enact the law to protect the person who held the office of Prime Minister......."

7.1.2 Another consideration for conferring legal status on the SPG appears to be to formalise all instructions required to be followed by the SPG under one umbrella. As per Shri P. Chidambaram : -

Deposition dated 6.11.96 :-

"My understanding is if SPG is to be given the status of Armed Force, then law is necessary.... SPG was governed by separate instructions, which in fact was in addition to the Blue Book and then the SPG Act was legislated. Thereafter instructions were issued in exercise of powers under the Act."

7.1.3 A third consideration appears to be a perceived need to provide legal cover to the SPG personnel during the discharge of their legitimate duties. On this issue, Shri R. Vasudevan, Special Secretary, in his deposition dated 7th. May, 1996, before the Commission, has stated :-

"SPG Act provided that SPG would be an Armed Force of the Union and would be entitled to legal cover for acts performed by the personnel in pursuance of their duties."

7.2 It is pertinent to mention here that conferment of legal status to the SPG had nothing to do with its functional effectivenes as clarified by Shri Chidambaram himself. In other words, functionally, the SPG remained equally effective before and after the legal cover. Shri P. Chidambaram stated :-

(Deposition dt. 6.11.96)

"There was no qualitative difference about SPG cover prior to enacting the law and after enacting the law except that it enjoyed statutory powers under the law and a certain statutory protection available to it under the law."