Nearly half a century has passed since Madhya Pradesh issued the notification defining the legal powers of its Economic Offences Wing, or EOW. The state government has now decided to amend that May 31, 1977 notification and bring it in line with the new criminal-law framework.
The law has now been updated. Congress MLA Pratap Grewal, who raised the issue, asked what had happened to the remaining complaints and alleged that the figures themselves raised serious questions over the EOW’s pace of investigation and disposal. Instead of directly beginning an investigation into the allegations, the complaint was forwarded to the Urban Development and Housing Department for examination. The complainant argued that he had already approached the same department before turning to the EOW. Congress MLA Pankaj Upadhyay questioned whether sending a complaint back to the very department connected with the allegations could weaken independent scrutiny rather than strengthen it. Against this backdrop, the Cabinet’s latest decision assumes significance. Updating the EOW’s legal powers from the IPC framework to the BNS may remove an important legal gap. But the larger test will be whether the change also translates into faster scrutiny of complaints, quicker registration of cases, timely investigations and more charge sheets reaching courts. The bigger question is whether the numbers will improve too.
The Mohan Yadav Cabinet has approved an amendment to the Home Department’s 1977 notification, enabling the EOW to proceed under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, instead of the corresponding sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Cabinet approved the amendment on August 25. Between 2020 and June 2026, the Economic Offences Wing received a record 23,261 complaints, according to figures disclosed in a written reply in the Assembly on behalf of Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav. Of these, only 3,018 complaints were registered for further examination, while 756 were closed after scrutiny. One of the questions raised in the Assembly referred to a complaint supported by an affidavit and 342 pages of documents that had been submitted to the EOW in June 2025.
