No direction can be given to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to register an FIR against a government servant without following the procedure of obtaining sanction from the appropriate higher authority, the Madras High Court has observed.
A division bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and Aruna Jagadeesan made the observation while dismissing a writ petition from Anti-Corruption Movement.
The very prayer of the petitioner was in the nature of nullifying the procedure of obtaining ‘sanction’ to prosecute the government servants provided under various laws of the land in force, the bench said.
When there were authorities competent to remove a public servant and to grant sanction for his prosecution, the requirement of such sanction precluded the courts from taking cognizance of the offences.
While such being the well established mandate of law of the land, the petitioner, under the guise of PIL, was trying to declare all such established legal procedure a nullity, which could not, by any stretch of imagination, be permitted, the bench added.
According to petitioner, after it received information regarding corrupt practices and irregularities committed by S Ravi, president of Alalasundaram Panchayat in Nagapattinam district, in implementing various schemes, it took up the issue to the District Collector to remove him from the post. Thereafter it sent several reminders to various authorities. But no action was taken. Hence, the present PIL.