Karnataka High Court quashes proceedings against 3 IAS officers for want of sanction

The High Court has quashed the proceedings against three retired IAS officers, including a former chief secretary, in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds, allotted for the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency.

Justice M Nagaprasanna said that if there is an inextricable link between the positions the government servants held and the acts alleged, sanction is sine qua non for the concerned court to take cognizance of the offence.

"The Apex Court holds that sanction under Section 197 of the CrPC was imperative for acts performed by public servants even beyond the discharge of official duty. If there is an inextricable link between the positions they held and the acts alleged, sanction is sine qua non for the concerned Court to take cognizance of the offence," the court said.

The petitioners, former chief secretary T M Vijaya Bhaskar, Dr E V Ramana Reddy and Amita Prasad, both former additional chief secretaries, had challenged the proceedings against them.

The case pertains to alleged misappropriation of funds during 2012-13. Based on the complaint filed by one Narayanaswamy, an RTI activist, crime was registered under various Sections of IPC, and also under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

On January 13, 2022, the special court took cognizance of the offence against the petitioners, along with others, and on April 18, 2022, a direction was issued to the then ACB, to conduct an investigation and submit a report. The petitioners had claimed that as public servants at the relevant time, it was mandatory to obtain sanctions to prosecute under Section 197 of CrPC and also Section 19 of the PC Act.

"In the light of the issue of sanction cutting at the root of the matter, the submissions with regard to proceedings hit by the doctrine of sameness or vicarious liability in criminal law being a bar need not be gone into, as prosecution against the petitioners cannot continue on the score of want of sanction. They are, however, kept open," Justice Nagaprasanna said.