Punjab Government on Wednesday issued directives to the bureaucratic top brass to maintain utmost care and conscientiousness while giving sanction to any investigating agency for the prosecution of any Government officer. The instructions were issued to all the financial commissioners, principal secretaries and administrative secretaries in pursuance of the Supreme Court judgement and instructions from the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions' Department of Personnel and Training.
Written instructions to all the head of the departments have been issued referring to the SC judgement in which court has observed that there is obligation on the sanctioning authority to discharge its duty to give or withhold sanction “only after having full knowledge of the material facts of the case”, said an official spokesperson of Punjab Government’s General Administration Department.
He made it clear that the grant of sanction "is not mere formality. So, before granting sanction, public interest and the protection available to the accused against whom sanction is sought must be kept in mind". Spokesperson said that the Supreme Court has explicitly laid down guidelines for grant of sanction for prosecution which need to be complied upon.
Court has observed that sanction lifts the bar for prosecution, therefore, "it is not an acrimonious exercise but a solemn and sacrosanct act which affords protection to the Government servant against frivolous prosecution". Spokesperson said that instruction issued to the HoDs, supplemented with the relevant part of the SC judgement, have asked them to adhere to these guidelines before granting sanction for prosecution.
The guidelines issued in the judgment for the competent authority while considering grant of sanction stated that the prosecution must send entire relevant record to the sanctioning authority including the FIR, disclosure statement, statement of witness, recovery memos, draft charge sheets and all other relevant material.
It stated that the record so sent should also contain the material or document, if any, which may tilt the balance in favour of the accused and on the basis of which, competent authority may refuse sanction. In every individual case, the prosecutions has to establish and satisfy the court by leading evidence that the entire relevant facts had been placed before the sanctioning authority and the authority had applied its mind on the same and that the sanction had been granted in accordance with law.