At present in all such cases the reports of the Anti-Corruption Bureau are received by the Departments of Secretariat concerned together with the advice of the Vigilance Commission, whereupon the competent authority is requested to sanction prosecution based on the material made available to him. It has however been represented that in respect of cases in which the competent authorities are subordinate to the Government, such sanction is questioned in the Courts as having been given by them on the direction of Government without exercising their discretion and that therefore, the evidence tendered by the sanctioning authorities during the trial of cases in courts is liable to be treated as of little value.
The Government have carefully examined the matter and have decided that in future the Departments of Secretariat while addressing the competent authorities to sanction prosecution under Section 6(1)(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, should inform the competent authorities that they have to apply their mind to the facts and circumstances of the case before sanction is accorded to the prosecution and that the competent authority should record the reasons that weighed with him in taking the decision in the sanction order itself.
