Department of Personnel and Training assures minimising delay in graft prosecution

NEW DELHI: The Department of Personnel and Training has directed the Union and state governments to ensure that the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) provides all relevant records at the time of seeking sanction for prosecution in corruption cases, so as to minimise delay.

The directive also aims to make the CBI accountable for any delay in this regard. Earlier, the Supreme Court had set a deadline of three months for grant or denial of sanction.

The directive was issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) joint secretary Jishnu Barua last week. ET has seen a copy of the directive. In its note, the DoPT said that investigating agencies were not providing all the records, including first information report (FIR) and statements of witnesses while seeking sanction, which in turn was delaying the government’s decision on grant of sanction.

The DoPT said, "There is an 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. Grant of sanction is not a mere formality.

"Delhi’s former anti-corruption chief N Dilip Kumar told ET, "This clearly points to the quality of sanction which are either granted or rejected in the absence of incomplete information. The checklist will not only help the sanctioning authority to take a complete view but at the same time expedite the entire proceedings. Despite the three months’ deadline, a lot of time gets consumed in exchange of communication between agencies and the government."