Sanction in 56 ACB cases for prosecuting officers awaited: PIL

A PIL in the Bombay High Court has alleged that 56 proposals were pending for a long time before the Maharashtra Government in which sanction had not been accorded to prosecute government class one officers under Prevention of Corruption Act.
The PIL, filed by RTI activist Ankur Patil, also alleged that in 19 other pending cases since 2002, the State was not deciding to grant permission to CBI's Anti-corruption Bureau to hold an open inquiry into the alleged disproportionate assets.
The PIL has annexed an RTI reply received from state government which indicates that in the 56 cases the officers had not been prosecuted because the government had not accorded sanction. Besides, permission had not been given in 19 other cases to conduct an open inquiry.

A bench of Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh asked the petitioner and RTI activist Ankur Patil yesterday to answer a law point on the issue stating whether a writ of mandamus can be issued by the court in such cases.
A mandamus is generally issued by the court when the government does not take any action on an issue.
The petitioner prayed for a direction to the State to enforce a rule of law set by the Supreme Court in the two famous cases of Vinit Narayan Versus Union of India and Subramanium Swamy versus PM of India.

The PIL said in the Supreme Court judgments cited by the petitioner, the time limit of three months have been prescribed for granting sanction to prosecute officers.

However, an additional month has also been given to cases where consultation of Attorney General is required.
Once the time limit was over, it was deemed that the sanction had been given and the agency can go ahead with the prosecution, it contended.
The PIL has been posted for hearing after Diwali vacations.