Governor summons file seeking prosecution sanction against Dhumal

SHIMLA: While the vigilance bureau had on March 13 filed a challan in the court against former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and three others in a case related to withdrawal of former IPS officer AN Sharma's resignation, Governor Kalyan Singh has summoned the file seeking prosecution sanction against Dhumal. The development holds significance as it could raise questions on the submission of challan in court.
According to sources, in a letter to the state government, the governor has summoned all documents related to the case at Raj Bhawan. Sources said that directions from the governor received last Friday have stunned the state government. They told that Kalyan Singh has asked for the files to be sent to his office in Jaipur where he is based as he holds office of Rajasthan governor. Sources shared that he wants to go through documents related to the case as well as former governor Urmila Singh's comments on the file, which formed the basis of the challan.
While the governor had asked the state government to send the file and other related documents in the case to him by Tuesday, sources said that the state government has not complied with the request yet.
Sources said that as the previous governor had recommended action against some officials for concealing facts, Kalyan Singh could also ask them about the action taken on the recommendations.
State vigilance and anti corruption bureau had, on June 17 last year, registered a case against Dhumal, former chief secretary Ravi Dhingra, former home secretary P C Kapoor, former municipal commisisoner of Shimla civic body A N Sharma, and charged them of corruption, forgery and criminal conspiracy under sections 120 B and 420 of the IPC and section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Challan was filed in the court of special judge on March 13.
Vigilance bureau had sent the file related to case to then Governor Urmila Singh seeking prosecution sanction against Dhumal. While returning the file, Urmila Singh had raised questions on the inquiry conducted earlier. In her observation made on January 20, she had stated that the prosecution sanction for alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is dealt under 19(1)(C). She further stated that the Supreme Court has clearly laid out that once a public servant demits his office in respect of which the offence was alleged to have been committed, sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act is not required.
Urmila Singh had also raised questions over sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC slapped in the case. "As regard the offences under the IPC, prima facie the nature of the alleged offences in the instant case under sections 420 and 120-B does not seem to be reasonably connected with the discharge of official duty of the public servant. Hence, prosecution sanction under section 197(1) (b) of CrPC is not required as per the law settled by Supreme Court in the matter of Parkash Singh Badal Vs State of Punjab reported as 2007," she added.
The former governor had further observed that based on the settled position of law, the officers in the state government, state vigilance bureau and prosecutors had not sought prosecution sanction from the governor in a similar case involving Virbhadra Singh, the then former chief minister, in the CD case.