P.SASIDHARAN NAIR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was the Programme Officer in the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (for short 'the Council'). He is the sole accused in the case C.C.No.30/2021 pending in the Court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thiruvananthapuram.

(2.) One Jeevan Thomas filed a complaint in the Special Court, raising allegations against the petitioner that he misappropriated money. As per the direction of the Special Court, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) conducted a preliminary enquiry into the allegations in that complaint. On the basis of the preliminary enquiry report, the Special Court ordered the VACB to conduct investigation into the offences disclosed. Accordingly, a case was registered against the petitioner as VC2/2017/TVM by the VACB, Thiruvananthapuram Unit.

(3.) After completing the investigation, the VACB filed charge-sheet against the petitioner in the Special Court. The investigating officer had sought sanction from the competent authority for prosecution against the petitioner. But sanction was refused by the authority concerned. As per Ext.P36 order dtd. 17/9/2020, the Special Court found that the sanctioning authority considered extraneous and irrelevant matters for declining sanction for prosecution against the petitioner. Therefore, the Special Court returned the final report (charge-sheet) to the investigating officer with a direction to approach the sanctioning authority again for obtaining sanction for prosecution under Sec. 19 of the Act and to file final report thereafter.