ALL About Intelligence Bureau of India

1. INDIAN INTELLIGENCE BUREAU
(Internal intelligence agency)
Agency Overview:
Formed: 1887
Headquarter: New Delhi
Motto: जागृतं अहर्निशं (English: Always Alert)
Parent agency: Ministry of Home Affairs
Website: www.mha.nic.in
Agency executive: Rajiv Jain, Director Intelligence Bureau
FRAMEWORK OF INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM OF INDIA:
OVERVIEW: The Intelligence Bureau (IB), ( Devanagari: खुफिया विभाग, khūphiyā vibhāga) :
 It is India’s Internal Intelligence Agency, which is reputed to be the oldest intelligence agency in
the world.
 An autonomous body created through executive order of the government in the year 1947.
 The IB is officially under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), but in practice the Director IB
(DIB) is a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and Steering Committee and has
the authority to brief the Prime Minister should the need arise, but intelligence inputs (at least in
theory) go through the regular channels in the MHA to the JIC.

2.  Earlier it was not an investigative agency but was primarily concerned with specialized analysis
of the information.
 The secretive information obtained by the agency helps the government to formulate foreign
policies with other countries. It shares information with other agencies and work with close
coordination.
THE MAKING:
Originally, the IB was created on 23 December 1887, by the British Secretary of State as a sub-sect of the
Central Special Branch but there is no act of the Indian parliament nor executive order relating to the
functioning of the IB.
It was recast as Central Intelligence Bureau in 1947 under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In 2012, a PIL was filed challenging the legality of IB.
BACKGROUND: 1923–68
Prior to the inception of the Research and Analysis Wing, overseas intelligence collection was
primarily the responsibility of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which was created by the British.
In 1933, sensing the political turmoil in the world which eventually led to the Second World War, the
Intelligence Bureau's responsibilities were increased to include the collection of intelligence along India's
borders.
In 1947, after independence, Sanjeevi Pillai took over as the first Indian Director of the IB. Having
been depleted of trained manpower by the exit of the British, Pillai tried to run the bureau on MI5 lines.
In 1949, Pillai organized a small foreign intelligence operation, but the Indian debacle in the Sino-
Indian war of 1962 showed it to be ineffective.
Foreign intelligence failure during the 1962 Sino-Indian War led then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to
order a dedicated foreign intelligence agency to be established.
Around the end of 1966 the concept of a separate foreign intelligence agency began to take concrete
shape.
INDIAN POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICE:
In 1909, the Indian Political Intelligence Office was established in England in response to the
development of Indian revolutionary activities, which came to be called the Indian Political Intelligence
(IPI) from 1921. This was a state-run surveillance and monitoring agency. The IPI was run jointly
by the India Office and the Government ofIndia and reported jointly to the Secretary of the Public
and Judicial Department ofthe India Office, and the Director ofIntelligence Bureau (DIB) in India,
and maintained close contact with Scotland Yard and MI5.
LEGALITYOF INTELLIGENCE BUREAU:
2012, R.N Kulkarni's PIL filed in Karnataka High Court questioned "How can the IB, established under
an administrative order without any constitutional or statutory identity even after the commencement of

3. the Constitution in 1950, be permitted to function as an apex national security apparatus,"... This extra-
constitutional status infringes upon the rights of citizens as well as those serving in the IB.
The main contentions were:
 IB exists in a constitutional vacuum—that it hasn’t been set up under an Act of Parliament, has no
charter of duties, no framework of policies, no rules and regulations relating to personnel,
recruitment, training, promotion and transfers.
 Under the Government of India Act,1935, the IB was not recognised as an intelligence agency in
the FederalList
 even upon commencement of the Constitution of India on October 26, 1950, the IB continued to
be sui generis and sans any constitutional or statutory identity.”
 In 1980, an affidavit from the Union home ministry to the Supreme Court said that IB staffers
were civilians.
 But the Fifth Pay Commission equated the IB with the CBI and other centralpolice organisations.
 IB enjoys sweeping powers without accountability and transparency.
 the IB is entitled to operational secrecy,but it should have a charter. Some of the world’s finest
intelligence agencies that operate in democratic countries have stringent frameworks,so why
shouldn’t the IB have one
The court has admitted the petition and served notice on the Union home ministry and the IB, which was
later directed to Supreme Court.
In 2016 SUPREMECOURT REJECTED THE PIL SAYING:
Putting intelligence agencies IB, RAW and NTRO under judicial scanner may "dent" national security,
"What they do in the United Kingdom, we cannot practice in India," "They (Centre and Parliament) must
be having some measures. It cannot be said that they do not have any mechanism. You need not legislate
on all issues. You need to have some kind of caution also, otherwise, the very purpose will be lost."
ACTS GOVERNING:
The closest that the IB ever came to have a rule was in 1985 when Parliament enacted the Intelligence
Organizations (Restriction of Rights) But Parliament failed to legislate for IB's establishment, regulation,
discipline, control or operations, the PIL said.
1) THE INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATIONS (RESTRICTION OF RIGHTS) ACT, 1985
ACT NO. 58 OF 1985 :
An Act to provide for the restriction of certain rights conferred by Part III of the Constitution in
their application to the members of certain organizations established by the CentralGovernment
for purposes of intelligence or counter-intelligence so as to ensure the proper discharge of their
duties and the maintenance of discipline among them.
Important Sections:
 Section 2: Definitions
 Section 3: Restrictions respecting right to form association, freedom of speech,etc
 Section 4: Penalty

4.  Section 7: Power to make rules
2) Also Governed by THE INDIAN POLICE SERVICE (UNIFORM) RULES, 1954, which
involves Section 17 defining Badges of Rank , i.e. Section 17 (a)- Director, Intelligence Bureau
Crossed sword and baton and the State Emblem and one star. Section 17 (c) (iii) Joint Director,
Intelligence Bureau Crossed sword and baton and one star and Section 4 regarding specification
of the Head Dress.
RANKS AND INSIGNIA: IB is a pyramidal organization.
The overall strength of the agency is believed to be around 25,000, with 3500-odd field agents operating
in the entire country. Of these, many are engaged in political intelligence.
The Bureau comprises employees from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the Indian Police
Service (IPS) or the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the military. However, the Director of Intelligence
Bureau (DIB) has always been an IPS officer.
Director Intelligence Bureau
(Four Star Ranking Officer)
Special Director (Equivalent to Director General of Police)
Additional Director (Equivalent to Additional Director General of Police)
Joint Director (Equivalent to Inspector General of Police)
Deputy Director (Equivalent to Deputy Inspector General of Police)
Joint Deputy Director (Equivalent to Senior Superintendent of Police)
Assistant Director (Equivalent to Superintendent of Police)
Deputy Central Intelligence Officer (Equivalent to Additional Superintendent of Police)
Assistant Central Intelligence Officer I (Equivalent to Deputy Superintendent of Police), DANIPS
Officers
Assistant Central Intelligence Officer II (Equivalent to Inspector of Police)
Junior Intelligence Officer (Equivalent to Sub-Inspector)
Besides the above executive posts, there are various other supporting posts in the Bureau as well

5. The collection mechanisms ofthe Intelligence Bureau vary depending on the region, but it operates
both at the state level and the national level.
 The bulk of the intelligence collection is carried out by `Grade II' employees of the IB, i.e. in
increasing order of seniority; the Security Assistants (Constable), the Junior Intelligence Officers
(Head Constable), the Asst. (Central) Intelligence Officer (Sub-Inspector), Deputy Central
Intelligence Officers (Inspector), and Joint Central Intelligence Officers (Superintendent of
Police).
 The `Class I'(gazette) officers carry out coordination and higher-level management of the
IB. These officers are (again in increasing order of seniority) Asst. Director, the Deputy Director,
Joint Director, Addl. Director, Special Director or Special Secretary and finally the Director IB.
 Grade II officers are in part direct recruitment via notification on MHA website and officer
deputed from state police forces,
 Class I officers are mostly deputed from state services following norms listed with the
Research and Analysis Wing.
 At the state level all IB officers are part of the State Special Bureau report to a Central
Intelligence Officer (the intelligence advisor to the Governor).
 The IB maintains a large number of field units and headquarters (which are under the control of
Joint or Deputy Directors).
 It is through these offices and the intricate process of deputation that a very `organic' linkage
between the state police agencies and the IB is maintained.
 In addition to these at the national level the IB has several units (in some cases Subsidiary
Intelligence Bureaus) to keep track of issues like terrorism, counter-intelligence, VIP security and
threat assessment, and sensitive areas (i.e. J&K;, North East Region (NER) etc...).
DIRECTOR OF THE INTELLIGENCE BUREAU:
No. Director Took office Left office
01 T. G. Sanjeevi Pillai 1947 1950
02 B. N. Mullik 15 July 1950 1964
03 S. P. Verma 1964 1968
04 M. L. Hooja 1968 1971
05 Atma Jayaram 1971 1975
06 S. N. Mathur 1975 1980
07 T. V. Rajeswar 1980 1983
08 R. K. Kapoor 1983 1984

6. 09 H. A. Barari 1984 1987
10 M. K. Narayanan 1987 1989
11 R. P. Joshi 1989 1990
12 M. K. Narayanan 1991 1992
13 V. G. Vaidya 1992 1994
14 D. C. Pathak 1994 1997
15 Abhijit Mitra 1997 August 1997 September
16 Arun Bhagat 1997 1998
17 Shayamal Dutta 1998 2001
18 K. P. Singh 2001 2004
19 Ajit Doval 2004 2005
20 E. S. L. Narasimhan 2005 2006
21 P. C. Haldar 2007 2008
22 Rajiv Mathur 2009 2010
23 N. Sandhu 2010 2012
24 Syed Asif Ibrahim 1 January 2013 31 December 2014
25 Dineshwar Sharma 1 January 2015 31 December 2016
26 Rajiv Jain 1 January 2017 Present
 Having a four-star rank and being an IPS officer, DIB is the senior-most ranking IPS officer of
the country.
AUTHORITY: Director IB (DIB) is a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), but intelligence
inputs (at least in theory) go through the regular channels in the Ministry of Home Affairs to the JIC.

7. RESPONSIBILITIES:
 Garner intelligence from within India
 Execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks.
 In addition to domestic intelligence responsibilities, the IB is particularly tasked with intelligence
collection in border areas, following the 1951 recommendations of the Himmat Singh Ji
Committee (also known as the North and North-East Border Committee
 All spheres of human activity within India and in the neighborhood are allocated to the charter of
duties of the Intelligence Bureau.
ACTIVITIES:
 Understanding of the shadowy workings of the IB is largely speculative. Many times even
members' own family members are unaware of their whereabouts.
 .The IB passes on intelligence between other Indian intelligence agencies and the police.
 The Bureau also grants the necessary security clearances to Indian diplomats and judges before
they take the oath.
 On rare occasions, IB officers interact with the media during a crisis situation.
 The Bureau is also authorized to conduct wiretapping without a warrant.
HOW DIFFERENT FROM OTHER AGENCIES:
 Does not have a mandate to investigate offences.
 It is not governed by the rules of evidence as prescribed by the Indian Evidence Act,
 It does not have police powers and, therefore, does not have to follow the procedure laid down
in chapter XII, Cr.P.C.
 It has no power to prosecute and, therefore, it has no interaction with courts.
At the same time, it has at its disposal agents who can obtain human intelligence, it has
electronic devices for intelligence collection, it has friends and well wishers and, perhaps,
double agents to obtain information and it has other sources, primary and secondary, through
which information is collected which might be of interest to India.
It is the job of IB to sift through all this matter and then identify that which is of relevance for
maintaining the security of India.
There are many ways through which intelligence is collected.
For example, in Britain, SIS had a whole psychiatric and psychological division during Second World
War, whose main objective was to study the psychology of enemy leaders, including Hitler and thereon
build a portrait which would enable the Allies to predict how Hitler and other leaders would react to a
given situation. The psychological warfare division was then required to suggest counter measures which
could psychologically neutralize the enemy.

8. The work ofan intelligence organisation, therefore, is to develop sourcesofinformation, quite often
totally informal sources, collate and analyse the information and then suggest alternative methods
of neutralizing any adverse action against India which the information indicates.
The world of intelligence and espionage is grey, hazy and all outlines are blurred.
Investigation has to live in a glare of public scrutiny in order to prove its credibility, but intelligence must
at all times be anonymous and secretive. Intelligence is a matter of probabilities based on such
information inputs as are available.
Every time a terrorist strike takes place, whether in Bombay on 8th November 2010, or in Chhattisgarh on
25th May 2013, whether a bomb blast takes place or Pakistani intrusions are there in border areas,the first
cry is that there is an intelligence failure. Should intelligence agencies, therefore, pass on every bit of
unverified information and constantly cry wolf?
An intelligence agency works on the twin premise of “need to know” and “deniability”. This means
that only those who need to know should be privy to information and at all times intelligence operatives
and agencies should be in a position to credibly deny any statement attributed to them. Under no
circumstance should an intelligence agency or an individual officer reveal sources because a
compromised source in the world of intelligence is as good as a dead source. That is why no intelligence
agency ever acknowledges as its own any of its agents who have been caught and charged with
espionage. This is a part of the doctrine of deniability and it must be respected.
SUCCESS STORIES:
 The Intelligence Bureau reportedly has a lot of successes to its credit, but operations conducted
by the IB are rarely declassified.
 It was reported in 2008 that the IB had been successful in busting terror modules.
 It alerted the police before the Hyderabad blasts and gave repeated warnings of a possible attack
on Mumbai through the sea before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
 However,came in for some sharp criticism by the media after the relentless wave of terror attacks
in 2008. The government came close to sacking top intelligence officials soon after 26/11 attacks
because of serious lapses that led to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITHIN THE IB:
1) There are problems regarding recruiting,
2) In sensitive areas (ex. J&K.; NER) the pace of security operations is very high. This
means that the turnaround time between collection, collation and dissemination has to be
very small. To reduce the dead time in intelligence handling, the law enforcement arms
(in most cases) are endowed with their own intelligence units. These units do varying
amounts of intelligence targeting and are in theory supposed to coordinate with the IB,
sometimes however, this coordination is not achieved .
3) The IB is Government of India's principal internal news agency. It is responsible for
monitoring all aspects of governance. As an extension of this role, it routinely monitors
the state governments and often draws up independent assessments of the security

9. situation in a state and advises the Governor. The Special Enquiry and Surveillance unit
(SES) of the IB handles most of this work. This task is vital in maintaining the stability of
elected governments. However it can easily be subverted to achieve less savory aims,
especially at the state level. Apart from any actual degradation in capacity, this kind of
work breeds the impression in that the IB can become purely a mechanism for
targeting the opposition.
4) The IB is also tasked with Counter-Intelligence operations. This area of IB work has been
the object of severe criticism and almost every internal disturbance is projected as a
failure in counter-intelligence (there is always talk of the absence of specificity in
threat assessments).