Himachal High Court directs center to decide about prosecuting tainted officers

Shimla: The HP High Court directed the central government to decide upon prosecution sanction against senior IAS and IPS officers who are allegedly indicted in corruption related cases and had not gone into trial for 14 months because of not having got the mandatory nod to do so from the central authorities.

A division bench of Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice VK Sharma on Friday made secretary personnel government of India a party to a case filed by former drug controller Sher Singh Thakur who had petitioned the court that the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (V & ACB) was being discriminatory in prosecuting corruption cases awaiting trial with the bureau. Thakur himself is an accused in a corruption case.

The judges directed the personnel secretary to the union government to decide the matter of prosecution sanction within a month. The sanction is mandatory before prosecuting any all India services officer.

The court observed that the union government had not decided upon the matter even though the prosecution sanction was sought 14 months ago in some cases.

Taking a hard stance on slow progress in investigating corruptions cases, the judges pointed out that in 12 cases investigations since 2005 were still being carried out by V & ACB.

The additional director general police (ADGP) with V &ACB has been asked to file an affidavit explain delays in investigation in these cases.

Earlier, in response to a courts directive DGP Daljeet Manhas had presented a list of officers in the state government to the court who were facing corruption charges or were part of a list of officers with doubtful integrity.

Later chief secretary Rajwant Sandhu had also submitted a list of 23 tainted officers in the state.

Ravinder Makhaik

As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.

Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.