Tainted officials: TJ Abraham flays delay by Ayukta, govt

Bangalore: Social activist T.J. Abra­ham on Wednesday criticised the state government and Lokayukta for the delay in taking action agai­nst 94 public servants accused under Prevention of Corruption Act.

Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, he said that delay in granting sanction for prosecution of public servants is nothing but delaying tactics by the state government.

And the Lokayukta, by citing abse­nce of sanction for prosecuting the official, was also safeguarding the accused officials, he said.

He added that if both state government and Lok­a­y­ukta did not act over the matter, it would lead to series of protests. Citing a Supreme Court judgment in respect to sanction for prosecution against public servants, Abraham said, “Governments and sanctioning authorities are under an obligation to de-­cide upon requests within a time frame of three mo­nths from the date of rece­ipt of any request.

The san­ction cannot by any stretch of imagin­ati­on go beyond a period of four months. Fail­ing which, it may am­ount to contempt of the SC and at the same time the prosecution can proceed with the ‘Deemed Sanction’  specifically granted in the case of Subramanian Sw­amy versus Dr Manmohan Singh.

He has also addre­ssed a letter to the Loka­yukta alo­ng with the SC verdict on ‘Deemed San­ction’ along with a list of 94 public servants in which prosecution sanction orde­rs are awaited from the competent authorities.

However, Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao has said that the verdict which the acti­vist has highlighted has to be understood properly.

The conclusion of the verdict had stated certain guidelines, “The Parlia­ment should ‘consider’ the Consti­tuti­onal imperative of Arti­cle 14 enshrining the rule of law, wherein ‘due process of law’ has been read into by introducing a time limit in Section 19 of the P.C. Act 1988 for its working in a reasonable manner. The Parliament ‘may,’ in my opinion, consider the following guidelines.”