Case: Dr. Subramanian Swamy Vs. Dr. Manmohan Singh

to judge the truth of the allegations on the basis of representation which may be filed by the accused person before the Sanctioning Authority, by asking the I.O. to offer his comments or to further investigate the matter in the light of representation made by the accused person or by otherwise holding a parallel investigation/enquiry by calling for the record/report of his department. (vii) However, if in any case, the Sanctioning Authority after consideration of the entire material placed before it, entertains any doubt on any point the competent authority may specify the doubt with sufficient particulars and may request the Authority who has sought sanction to clear the doubt. But that would be only to clear the doubt in order that the authority may apply its mind proper, and not for the purpose of considering the representations of the accused which may be filed while the matter is pending sanction. (viii) If the Sanctioning Authority seeks the comments of the IO while the matter is pending before it for sanction, it will almost be impossible for the Sanctioning Authority to adhere to the time limit allowed by the Supreme Court in Vineet Narains case. 31. The aforementioned guidelines are in conformity with the law laid down by this Court that while considering the issue regarding grant or refusal of sanction, the only thing which the Competent Authority is required to see is whether the material placed by the complainant or the investigating agency prima facie discloses commission of an offence. The Competent Authority cannot undertake a detailed inquiry to decide whether or not the allegations made against the public servant are true. 32. In the light of the above discussion, we shall now consider whether the High Court was justified in refusing to entertain the writ petition filed by the appellant. In this context, it is apposite to observe that the High Court had proceeded under a wholly erroneous assumption that respondent No.1 had directed investigation by the CBI into the allegations of grave irregularities in the grant of licences. As a matter of fact, on receipt of representation dated 4.5.2009 that the grant of licences by respondent No.2 had resulted in huge loss to the Public Exchequer, the CVC got conducted an inquiry under Section 8(d) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 and forwarded a copy of the report to the Director, CBI for making an investigation into the matter to establish the criminal conspiracy in the allocation of 2G spectrum under the UASL policy of the DoT and to bring to book all the wrongdoers. Thereupon, the CBI registered FIR No.RC-DI-2009-A-0045 dated 21.10.2009 against unknown officials of the DoT, unknown private persons/companies and others for offences under Section 120-B IPC read with Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the 1988 Act. For the next about one year, the matter remained dormant and the CBI took steps for vigorous investigation only when this Court intervened in the matter. The material placed on record does not show that the CBI had registered a case or started investigation at the instance of respondent No.1. 33. On his part, the appellant had submitted representation to respondent No. 1 almost one year to the registration of the first information report by the CBI and highlighted the grave irregularities committed in the grant of licences resulting in the loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the Public Exchequer. He continuously pursued the matter by sending letters to respondent No.1 at regular intervals. The affidavit filed by Shri V. Vidyawati, Director in the PMO shows that the matter was placed before respondent No.1 on 1.12.2008, who directed the concerned officer to examine and apprise him with the facts of the case. Surprisingly, instead of complying with the direction given by respondent No.1 the concerned officer sent the appellants representation to the DoT which was headed by none other than respondent No.2 against whom the appellant had made serious allegations of irregularities in the grant of licences. It was natural for respondent No.2 to have seized this opportunity, and he promptly sent letter dated 18.6.2009 to the appellant justifying the grant of licences. The concerned officer in the PMO then referred the matter to the Ministry of Law and Justice for advice. It is not possible to appreciate that even though the appellant repeatedly wrote letters to respondent No.1 highlighting the seriousness of the allegations made in his first representation and the fact that he had already supplied the facts and documents which could be made basis for grant of sanction to prosecute respondent No.2 and also pointed out that as per the judgments of this Court, detailed inquiry was not required to be made into the allegations, the concerned officers in the PMO kept the matter pending and then took the shelter of the fact that the CBI had registered the case and the investigation was pending. In our view, the officers in the PMO and the Ministry of Law and Justice, were duty bound to apprise respondent No.1 about seriousness of allegations made by the appellant and the judgments of this Court including the directions contained in paragraph 58(I) of the judgment in Vineet Narains case as also the guidelines framed by the CVC so as to enable him to take appropriate decision in the matter. By the very nature of the office held by him, respondent No. 1 is not expected to personally look into the minute details of each and every case placed before him and has to depend on his advisers and other officers. Unfortunately, those who were expected to give proper advice to respondent No. 1 and place full facts and legal position before him failed to do so. We have no doubt that if respondent No.1 had been apprised of the true factual and legal position regarding the representation made by the appellant, he would have surely taken appropriate decision and would not have allowed the matter to linger for a period of more than one year.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]30. The CVC, after taking note of the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Jagjit Singh v. State of Punjab (1996) Crl. Law Journal 2962, State of Bihar v. P. P. Sharma 1991 Supp. 1 SCC 222, Superintendent of Police (CBI) v. Deepak Chowdhary, (1995) 6 SC 225,  framed guidelines which were circulated vide office order No.31/5/05 dated 12.5.2005. The relevant clauses of the guidelines are extracted below:2(i) Grant of sanction is an administrative act. The purpose is to protect the public servant from harassment by frivolous or vexatious prosecution and not to shield the corrupt. The question of giving opportunity to the public servant at that stage does not arise. The sanctioning authority has only to see whether the facts would prima-facie constitutes the offence(ii) The competent authority cannot embark upon an inquiry to judge the truth of the allegations on the basis of representation which may be filed by the accused person before the Sanctioning Authority, by asking the I.O. to offer his comments or to further investigate the matter in the light of representation made by the accused person or by otherwise holding a parallel investigation/enquiry by calling for the record/report of his department(vii) However, if in any case, the Sanctioning Authority after consideration of the entire material placed before it, entertains any doubt on any point the competent authority may specify the doubt with sufficient particulars and may request the Authority who has sought sanction to clear the doubt. But that would be only to clear the doubt in order that the authority may apply its mind proper, and not for the purpose of considering the representations of the accused which may be filed while the matter is pending sanction(viii) If the Sanctioning Authority seeks the comments of the IO while the matter is pending before it for sanction, it will almost be impossible for the Sanctioning Authority to adhere to the time limit allowed by the Supreme Court in Vineet Narains case31. The aforementioned guidelines are in conformity with the law laid down by this Court that while considering the issue regarding grant or refusal of sanction, the only thing which the Competent Authority is required to see is whether the material placed by the complainant or the investigating agency prima facie discloses commission of an offence. The Competent Authority cannot undertake a detailed inquiry to decide whether or not the allegations made against the public servant are true32. In the light of the above discussion, we shall now consider whether the High Court was justified in refusing to entertain the writ petition filed by the appellant. In this context, it is apposite to observe that the High Court had proceeded under a wholly erroneous assumption that respondent No.1 had directed investigation by the CBI into the allegations of grave irregularities in the grant of licences. As a matter of fact, on receipt of representation dated 4.5.2009 that the grant of licences by respondent No.2 had resulted in huge loss to the Public Exchequer, the CVC got conducted an inquiry under Section 8(d) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 and forwarded a copy of the report to the Director, CBI for making an investigation into the matter to establish the criminal conspiracy in the allocation of 2G spectrum under the UASL policy of the DoT and to bring to book all the wrongdoers. Thereupon, the CBI registered FIR No.RC-DI-2009-A-0045 dated 21.10.2009 against unknown officials of the DoT, unknown private persons/companies and others for offences under Section 120-B IPC read with Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the 1988 Act. For the next about one year, the matter remained dormant and the CBI took steps for vigorous investigation only when this Court intervened in the matter. The material placed on record does not show that the CBI had registered a case or started investigation at the instance of respondent No.133. On his part, the appellant had submitted representation to respondent No. 1 almost one year to the registration of the first information report by the CBI and highlighted the grave irregularities committed in the grant of licences resulting in the loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the Public Exchequer. He continuously pursued the matter by sending letters to respondent No.1 at regular intervals. The affidavit filed by Shri V. Vidyawati, Director in the PMO shows that the matter was placed before respondent No.1 on 1.12.2008, who directed the concerned officer to examine and apprise him with the facts of the case. Surprisingly, instead of complying with the direction given by respondent No.1 the concerned officer sent the appellants representation to the DoT which was headed by none other than respondent No.2 against whom the appellant had made serious allegations of irregularities in the grant of licences. It was natural for respondent No.2 to have seized this opportunity, and he promptly sent letter dated 18.6.2009 to the appellant justifying the grant of licences. The concerned officer in the PMO then referred the matter to the Ministry of Law and Justice for advice. It is not possible to appreciate that even though the appellant repeatedly wrote letters to respondent No.1 highlighting the seriousness of the allegations made in his first representation and the fact that he had already supplied the facts and documents which could be made basis for grant of sanction to prosecute respondent No.2 and also pointed out that as per the judgments of this Court, detailed inquiry was not required to be made into the allegations, the concerned officers in the PMO kept the matter pending and then took the shelter of the fact that the CBI had registered the case and the investigation was pending. In our view, the officers in the PMO and the Ministry of Law and Justice, were duty bound to apprise respondent No.1 about seriousness of allegations made by the appellant and the judgments of this Court including the directions contained in paragraph 58(I) of the judgment in Vineet Narains case as also the guidelines framed by the CVC so as to enable him to take appropriate decision in the matter. By the very nature of the office held by him, respondent No. 1 is not expected to personally look into the minute details of each and every case placed before him and has to depend on his advisers and other officers. Unfortunately, those who were expected to give proper advice to respondent No. 1 and place full facts and legal position before him failed to do so. We have no doubt that if respondent No.1 had been apprised of the true factual and legal position regarding the representation made by the appellant, he would have surely taken appropriate decision and would not have allowed the matter to linger for a period of more than one year.