SUBHASH BHATIA Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are in employment of the State of Rajasthan and having their lien with the department of irrigation. THE Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction, is the authority competent to remove the petitioners from service, thus, as per provisions of Section 19(l)(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (hereinafter to be referred to as, "the Act of 1988") by an order dated 11.1.2010 he granted sanction to prosecute the petitioners for the offences punishable under Section 13(l)(d)(e) and Section 13(2) of the Act of 1988 and also placed them under suspension vide order dated 13.1.2010. To question the correctness of the orders aforesaid this petition for writ is preferred.

(2.) IN brief, facts of the case are that the officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Sriganganagar by acting upon some information, visited the office of Executive Engineer, Rajasthan State Water Resources Project, Sriganganagar and Executive Engineer, Gang Nahar, Link Channel Division, Sriganganagar, and on making certain search they recovered a sum of Rs.4635 from the petitioner Subhash Bhatia, a sum of Rs. 10,000/-, Rs.34,000/-, Rs.7275A, Rs.7270/-, Rs.3920/- and Rs.2460/- from petitioners Nanak Chand, Laxmi Narayan, Raj Bux, Mohan Singh Rajvi, Lalit Kumar and Hanuman Sahai respectively. On recovery of the amount aforesaid explanation was tendered by the petitioners, however, the officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a criminal case (FIR No.207/2006) on 2.8.2006 at Outpost Sriganganagar, Principal Police Station, Jaipur. The Supdt. of Police, Anti Corruption Bureau by letter dated 19.11.2007 requested the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction to consider and grant the sanction for prosecution of the petitioners. IN pursuant to the communication aforesaid the competent authority i.e. respondent No.3 considered the matter and after having deliberations with the investigating officer reached at the conclusion that no case was made out to prosecute the petitioners, though there may be a case to initiate disciplinary action, as per the provisions of Rajasthan Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1958. An opinion was accordingly forwarded under a letter dated 20.2.2009 to the Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Rajasthan, Jaipur. The office of the Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur under a letter dated 16.4.2009 remitted the matter to the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction to take appropriate decision at his own level being the authority competent, as per the Act of 1988. On receipt of the letter dated 16.4.2009 the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction again referred the matter to Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Jaipur detailing therein that in view of the Department of Personnel Circular dated 30.5.2001 an action was required to be taken at department level and not at the level of zone. The Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department again sent entire record to the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction with advice to forward the matter to the Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan. Accordingly, a detailed report was sent to the Deputy Secretary, Water Resources Department under a letter dated 31.7.2009. On receiving the letter aforesaid the Deputy Secretary by his letter dated 10.82009 sought comments in the matter from the Chief Engineer, Bisalpur Project, however, he refused to make any comment in view of the fact that necessary comments were already made by the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction. IN such circumstances, under a letter dated 5.11.2009 the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan, Department of Water Resources remitted the matter to the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone) for reconsideration. The authority competent i.e. Chief Engineer (North Zone), Hanumangarh Junction under a letter dated 1.12.2009 after examining the material available reiterated his earlier opinion. On receipt of the letter dated 1.12.2009 the Deputy Secretary under a letter dated 31.12.2009 directed the Chief Engineer, Water Resources (North Zone) to grant the sanction for prosecution of the petitioners immediately. The letter dated 31.12.2009 reads as under: - <IMG>JUDGEMENT_1015_RAJLW2_2011Image1.jpg</IMG> <IMG>JUDGEMENT_1015_RAJLW2_2011Image2.jpg</IMG>

(3.) WHILE meeting with the arguments advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner it is submitted on behalf of the respondents that before granting sanction under order dated 11.1.2010 the authority competent adequately applied its mind by going through the entire record available. The stand of the respondents as averred in reply to the writ petition reads as follows:-