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In a first, the Centre has decided to empower common man to seek prosecution of corrupt Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.
The move comes after the Supreme Court judgement — in the case of Subramanian Swamy versus the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others — saying there is no provision in relevant laws which bars a citizen from filing a complaint for prosecution of a public servant who is alleged to have committed an offence.
Following this verdict, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is in receipt of requests from private persons seeking sanction for prosecution in respect of IAS officers without any proper proposal and supporting documents.
It is observed that such requests, as are received from citizens are more in the nature of complaints sans any supporting details, which can at best merit inquiry of substantial facts as are evidenced, the DoPT said in a draft guidelines issued on Thursday.
Keeping in view the basic parameters and requirements for cases received from investigating agencies, it has been decided to streamline the procedure for handling the requests for prosecution sanction received from the private person, it said.
"A proposal from a private individual seeking sanction for prosecution of an IAS officer serving in the state government may be routed through the concerned state government as such state government is best placed to provide basic inputs as regards the alleged misconduct of the concerned public servant who is or was working under its administrative control," the draft said.
"In case a proposal is received directly by DoPT by such private individuals will be forwarded to the state governments for the preliminary examination by such state government vis-a-vis the relevant records," it added.
