Court refuses to drop DA case against Puducherry ex-Chief Secy

A Delhi court has refused to drop criminal proceedings against former Chief Secretary of Puducherry C S Khairwal in a disproportionate assets case, saying proper sanction was granted by the central government to prosecute him.
The court said the sanction order contained sufficient material to proceed against the accused, a 1974 batch IAS officer whose services were later terminated during the pendency of the trial.
"The sanction order is a speaking one which itself shows that there was sufficient material for proceedings against accused C S Khairwal for acquiring disproportionate assets worth Rs 3.15 crore for which he could not furnish a satisfactory reply," Special CBI Judge Pitamber Dutt said.

The court also noted that the total income of Khairwal and his family members was computed as Rs 30.7 lakh from all their known sources of income while the assets acquired by him in 1996 were to the tune of Rs 3.28 crore, to which the accused could not give a satisfactory explanation to CBI.
"The disproportionate assets found to have been possessed by accused during the check period was over Rs 3 crore which was more than 10 times the entire income of Khairwal and his family members. The said fact itself shows that sanction was accorded by the competent authority after satisfying itself regarding disproportionate assets acquired by him," it said.

Khairwal, in his plea, had sought dropping of proceedings against him on the ground that the sanction to prosecute him was not proper.

The court said merely because the sanction order was a verbatim copy of the draft sanction order submitted by CBI, "it would not vitiate the sanction so accorded by the Central Government who was the removal authority of accused Khairwal."
"In view of above facts and circumstances, I am of the considered view that Central Government was the competent authority to remove accused Khairwal from his services. The Central Government headed by the then Prime Minister of India examined the allegations levelled against accused on the basis of material produced by the CBI.

The court's verdict came on Khairwal's plea seeking dropping of proceedings against him on the ground that the sanction to prosecute him was not proper as it was passed by the government in a mechanical manner "without due application of mind and is nothing but a reproduction of draft sanction forwarded by the CBI."
The former bureaucrat was also charged with offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the IPC for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with his son and using a forged Will of his father. He had sought quashing of these charges too saying no sanction was obtained to prosecute him of these offences.

This plea was also dismissed by the court, which said "the act of using a forged Will of his father as genuine by no stretch of imagination can come within the purview of an official work done by a public servant.
"The allegations levelled against accused Khairwal for commission of an offence punishable under section 120B and 471 of IPC have no connection whatsoever with an act in connection of discharge of his official duty, therefore no sanction under section 197 CrPC was necessary for prosecuting him," it had said.