LAW FOR ALL

SANCTION FOR PROSECUTION NECESSARY OR NOT/ VALID OR NOT, APPELLANT COURT CAN DECIDED IT =whether the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Application No. 2648 of 2007 is justified in refusing to grant leave to file an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Anti Corruption Branch, Mumbai (for short “the CBI”) against the learned Special Judge had acquitted the respondent No. 1 under Sections 7, 13 (1) (d) read with 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (For brevity “the Act”) principally on the foundation that the sanction granted by the competent authority was defective and illegal as there was non-application of mind which would show lack of satisfaction.- It is well settled that any case instituted without a proper sanction must fail because this being a manifest defect in the prosecution, the entire proceedings are rendered void ab initio. - (a) It is incumbent on the prosecution to prove that the valid sanction has been granted by the sanctioning authority after being satisfied that a case for sanction has been made out. (b) The sanction order may expressly show that the sanctioning authority has perused the material placed before him and, after consideration of the circumstances, has granted sanction for prosecution. (c) The prosecution may prove by adducing the evidence that the material was placed before the sanctioning authority and his satisfaction was arrived at upon perusal of the material placed before him. (d) Grant of sanction is only an administrative function and the sanctioning authority is required to prima facie reach the satisfaction that relevant facts would constitute the offence. (e) The adequacy of material placed before the sanctioning authority cannot be gone into by the court as it does not sit in appeal over the sanction order. (f)If the sanctioning authority has perused all the materials placed before him and some of them have not been proved that would not vitiate the order of sanction. (g) The order of sanction is a pre-requisite as it is intended to provide a safeguard to public servant against frivolous and vexatious litigants, but simultaneously an order of sanction should not be construed in a pedantic manner and there should not be a hyper-technical approach to test its validity.= It is well settled in law that it is obligatory on the part of the appellate court to scrutinize the evidence and further its power is coextensive with the trial court. It has power to consider all the matters which weighed with the trial court and the reasons ascribed by it for disbelieving or accepting the witnesses. It is incumbent on the High Court to analyse the evidence, deal with the legal issues and deliver a judgment. Thus, there is no merit in the submission that it should be remanded to the learned trial Judge. Apart from the aforesaid reason, we are also not inclined to remit the matter to the learned trial Judge as there would be another round of hearing before the learned trial Judge which is avoidable. It has to be kept uppermost in mind that remit to the trial court has to be done in very rare circumstances, for it brings in procrastination in the criminal justice dispensation system which is not appreciated. 20. Consequently, the appeal is allowed, the judgment of the High Court and the conclusion of the learned trial Judge pertaining to the validity of sanction are set aside and the matter is remitted to the High Court. As we have not dealt with any other finding recorded by the learned trial Judge, it has to be construed that there has been no expression of opinion on the merits of the case on those counts. The High Court shall be well advised to consider all the aspects barring what has been dealt with in this appeal while dealing with the application for grant of leave.