31 corruption cases pending sanction for prosecution

"31 cases under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 are pending for sanction for prosecution in various ministries or departments and State governments for more than four months as on December 31, 2011," Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy today told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

He said the delay in the sanctioning of prosecution is mostly on account of detailed scrutiny and analysis of voluminous cases records and evidence, consultation with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), State governments and other agencies, and sometimes non-availability of relevant documents.

Citing a recent Supreme Court judgement, Narayanasamy said one of the Judges has made an observation that Parliament may consider introducing a time limit and introduce a provision in the PC Act that if prosecution is not accorded within the time limit, sanction will be deemed to have been granted to the proposal for prosecution.

The Minister said that a Group of Ministers (GoM) on tackling corruption has in its first report recommended that in all cases where the investigating agency has requested sanction for prosecution and also submitted a draft charge sheet and related documents along with the request, it will be mandatory for the competent authority to take a decision within three months.

"The said recommendation of the GoM has been accepted by the Government and instructions have been issued by the Government on May 3, 2012," he added.