SURAT RAM SHARMA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has come up in appeal under Clause X of the Letters Patent against the judgment dated 17.12.2009, passed by the learned Single Judge in CWP No. 14627 of 2007. The learned Single Judge has posed following two questions of law:

(2.) Learned Single Judge noticed the judgment of Hon'ble the Supreme Court rendered in the case of State of Punjab v. Mohammed Iqbal Bhatti, 2009 3 RCR(Cri) 861 and proceeded to answer the first question in affirmative. However, the argument raised on behalf of the petitioner appellant that the condition precedent for exercising power of review in the matter of grant of sanction for prosecution is the availability of fresh material which has not been considered earlier. However, the learned Single Judge held that presence of fresh material constitute one of the ground yet there, is possibility of review if the sanctioning authority fails to take into consideration relevant facts or had earlier decided the question with regard to sanction by taking into consideration irrelevant facts. The aforesaid view of the learned Single Judge is discernible from the following observation:

(3.) Thereafter the second question of law was taken up and the learned Single Judge held that while granting sanction by the impugned order dated 6.7.2007 (P4), the sanctioning authority has based its decision on the investigation file. On the aforesaid question, the view of the learned Single Judge is discernible from the following observation: