Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy told Lok Sabha in reply to a question that as per information provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation there are 28 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act in which sanction for prosecution is pending against 62 officials for more than four months.
The list provided in the reply included the names of Acharya, who is an accused in APIIC land scam in Andhra Pradesh, ICMR scientist Bela Shah, Major Anindya Ray of Military Engineering Services and Lav Kumar Saksena of Income Tax department.
Narayanasamy said as per a Supreme Court direction, "time limit of three months for grant of sanction for prosecution must be strictly adhered to...Additional time of one month may be allowed where consultation is required with the Attorney General or any law officer in the AG's office."
However, he said, "It is some times not possible to adhere to this time limit. The delay which occurs in the sanctioning of prosecution is mostly on account of detailed scrutiny and analysis of voluminous case records and evidence, consultation with Central Vigilance Commission, state governments and other agencies and sometimes non-availability of documentary evidence."
In order to check delays in grant of sanction for prosecution, the DOPT has issued guidelines which provides for a definite time frame at each stage for handling of requests from CBI for prosecution of public servants, he said.
The GoM on tackling corruption had also given certain recommendations for speedy disposal of sanction of prosecution cases which were accepted by the government, he said.