PRABHULLAKUMAR S. Vs. STATE OF KERALA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Annexure - B order passed by the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thiruvananthapuram in Crl MP No. 85/2013 in CC No. 35/2009 is under challenge. The petitioner stands indicted before the Court below for the offences punishable under S.7 and S.13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with S.13(1)(d) of that Act. The petitioner has seriously challenged the legality and validity of the sanction for prosecution before the Court below within the provisions of S.19 of the said Act. It is the specific case of the petitioner that the authority, who has granted the so - called sanction in the case, is not the authority who could remove the petitioner from service and, therefore, there is no valid sanction as contemplated under S.19 of the Act.

(2.) According to the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, the Court below has taken the said question lightly and has simply discarded the said contention raised by the petitioner by stating in Annexure - B order that the sanction was issued by the officer, who was in charge of the Commissioner of Land Revenue and, therefore, the argument advanced by the petitioner on the basis of lack of valid sanction is only having little substance.

(3.) The learned Senior Counsel, Sri. K. Ramakumar for the petitioner, has pointed out that the petitioner can have resort to such a contention of the validity of sanction at the inception or at a later stage in the matter.