126 graft cases awaiting sanction for prosecution, Centre tells court

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that sanction for prosecution is awaited in 126 cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against various public servants including Justice Nirmal Yadav of the Uttarakhand High Court, who has been given a clean chit in the Rs.15-lakh cash-at-door scam during her tenure as judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.



On November 24, a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly — while reserving verdict on the petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking sanction for prosecution of the the former Communications Minister A. Raja — asked Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati to furnish the number of cases pending for want of sanction for prosecution.

Accordingly, he furnished a list of 126 cases ministry-wise. He said the total number of persons against whom sanction was sought was 319, the number in most cases being more than one.

The break-up figures for the 319 persons are all-India services (2), government (166), public sector undertakings (83), banks and financial institutions (60) and others (8) including Justice Yadav in the case registered by the Anti-Corruption unit in Delhi in 2008, on which a report was sent to the Union Law Ministry in June this year.

These cases were registered from 2000 to 2010, with Customs and Central Excise accounting for the maximum number of 69 persons, followed by the Communications Ministry with 32.

As on October 31, 2010, the sanction was awaited, says the report implying that sanction for prosecution had been forwarded to the Chief Justice of India for further action.

Earlier — acting on the Law Ministry's report that no case was made out against Justice Yadav in the cash-at-door or land scam — she was shifted to the Uttarakhand High Court.

The list, however, is silent on Central Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas, against whom a charge sheet is pending in the Kerala palmolein import case. Enquiries reveal that since Mr. Thomas was serving in the Kerala government during the relevant period, sanction for prosecution was awaited from the State government even as the proceedings had been stayed by the Supreme Court.