STATE OF KERALA Vs. V PADMNABHAN NAIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) In July 1989, respondent retired from Government service as Superintending Engineer of the P.W.D. under the Government of Kerala. About three years thereafter he was arraigned along with certain other persons before a Special Judge for offence under S. 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (for short 'the P.C. Act') and Ss. 406, 409, 201 read with Ss. 120-B and 109 of the Indian Penal Code. A learned single Judge of the High Court of Kerala quashed the criminal proceedings against the respondent for want of sanction under S. 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'the Code'). State of Kerala, aggrieved by the said order of the High Court, has come up with this appeal by special leave.

(3.) The case against the respondent, in short, is that while he was working as Executive Engineer at the Moovattupuzha Valley Irrigation Project Division, he joined himself into a criminal conspiracy with four other accused for defrauding the Government by misappropriating about 600 tonnes of steel rods (costing Rs. 1,26,000/-). When respondent was charge-sheeted for the aforesaid offences, he appeared before the Special Judge's Court and filed a petition to discharge him on the ground that no prior sanction, as contemplated in S. 197 of the Code, has been obtained. Respondent, however, conceded before the Special Judge that no previous sanction is necessary under S. 6 of the P.C. Act, 1947. But the Special Judge overruled his contention and held that "there is no necessity at all to obtain a sanction under S. 197 of the Code to proceed against the petitioner under the provisions of the P.C. Act, 1947."