Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – Whether High Court was correct in quashing the sanction order when the trial had already commenced and the prosecution had already examined seven witnesses – Correctness:
Held: The petition for quashing of Sanction Order was filed by the respondent after the trial court framed the charge and commenced the trial, rather after the prosecution examined five witnesses – While deciding the issue, The Hon’ble Supreme Court placed heavy reliance on State of Karnataka, Lokayukta Police Versus S. Subbegowda (2023 SCC Online SC 911), where the Hon’ble Apex Court dealt with ss.19(3) and 19(4) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and held, sanction order passed by special judge shall not be interfered with, by the Court in appeal or revision on the ground of the absence of, or any error, omission or irregularity in the sanction, unless the said Court in appeal or revision finds that failure of justice has occurred while passing impugned order — The High Court failed to record any opinion as to how a failure of justice had in fact on account of error if any, occurred in granting the sanction by the authority – As per the Explanation to sub-section (4), of Section 19, error includes “competency of the authority to grant Sanction” – The Sanction, in question, has been granted by the competent authority or not, would be a matter of evidence to be proved by the prosecution during the course of trial – The High Court committed gross error in quashing the Sanction Order and the consequent proceedings as the High Court failed to record any opinion as to how a failure of justice had occasioned, thus the order passed by High Court is set aside. [Paras 7, 8, 9]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Gaurav Upadhyay, Hony. Associate Editor (Verified by: Liz Mathew, Sr. Adv.). Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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