India's chief auditor is shielded so the government cannot punish its critic
India's Comptroller and Auditor General checks how the national and state governments spend public money, and the Constitution goes out of its way to keep that watchdog independent. Once appointed, the auditor's pay and pension cannot be cut, and after leaving office they are barred from taking any further government job, national or state.
The office rests on Article 148 of the Constitution, with Articles 148 to 151 covering the institution as a whole. The auditor is appointed by the President, paid the same as a Supreme Court judge, and ranked ninth in the order of precedence, level with a sitting judge of that court. Removal requires an address from both houses of Parliament on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. The term ends at age 65 or after six years, whichever arrives first.
The reach is broad. The auditor examines every rupee spent from the Consolidated Fund of India and of each state, whether the money is spent at home or abroad, along with government trading accounts, stores, grants, loans and state-owned companies where the government holds at least 51 percent. A 1971 Act set out the detailed duties, and in 1976 the office shed its accounting work to concentrate on audit. Its reports go to Parliament and state legislatures, where public accounts committees take them up. The department behind it employed 43,576 people as of March 2020.
Its work can be surprisingly specific. In one thematic review, auditors rode selected trains starting and ending at Sealdah and Howrah stations in Kolkata to judge whether those services were needed. The Supreme Court also ruled that the auditor could examine private firms sharing revenue with the government. Internationally, the office has sat on the United Nations panel of external auditors and was elected chair of the UN board of auditors in 2011.
Gaps remain. Officials have reported that almost 30 percent of documents they requested were refused, and by one 2013 estimate some 60 percent of government spending fell outside the auditor's scrutiny, partly because public-private partnerships may escape review depending on how they are funded. In November 2025 the office announced separate specialist cadres for revenue and expenditure audits.
Source: Comptroller and Auditor General of India
