The High Court of Karnataka has said that the competent authorities of the State government should take a decision within an outer limit of six months, if not earlier, on the requests made by the investigating agencies for grant of sanction under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC) for prosecution of public servants in criminal cases.
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“The State or the competent authority cannot sit over the files for sanction for months together and contend ‘not taking any decision is also a decision’, as only on account of want of sanction the proceedings are being quashed even in cases where corruption is the allegation...” the High Court said.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a batch of petitions filed by M.S. Faneesha, who was working as executive officer of Arakalgud taluk panchayat in Hassan district.
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The court quashed chargesheets for want of sanction for his prosecution filed against the petitioner in 2016 in several cases of criminal breach of trust under Section 408 and 409 of the Cr.PC registered against him during 2009-10 for allegedly causing loss to the State exchequer by not following the procedure while executing.
“If government wants to curb corruption, a bane to the society in the present day, such intention of the Government should be reflected in swift action, particularly in cases concerning corruption or any act of a public servant in discharge of his official duty,” the court observed.
The court pointed out that litigations are being generated on indecisiveness of respective competent authorities either on the ignorance of the investigating agency in not requesting for sanction or the indecisiveness of the respective competent authorities in not passing necessary orders on request made by the investigating agency seeking sanction for prosecution.