NCP seeks revocation of Maha law on sanction for investigation

While the debate on the Rajasthan government's ordinance protecting pubic servants and judges from prosecution without prior sanction rages on, the NCP today demanded that a 2015 Act in Maharashtra be scrapped.

The Act, passed by Maharashtra legislature, makes government's sanction mandatory for investigation against public servants.

Rajasthan government today tabled a bill to replace its ordinance protecting serving and former judges, magistrates and public servants from prosecution without prior sanction.

"The law is in force in Maharashtra since August 2016. We had opposed it when it was tabled in the Assembly because it seeks to shield corrupt ministers and officers," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik told reporters here.
 

"At a time when the entire nation is opposing the bill introduced in the Rajasthan Assembly, we demand that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who boasts of transparent administration, repeal the act in Maharashtra," Malik said.

However, responding to NCP's demand, government spokesperson Brijesh Singh said that section 161 of the Bombay Police Act and section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code already granted protection to government servants for acts done in the discharge of official duty.

"By passing this amendment, Maharashtra government has ensured that corrupt officials will not be able to hide behind procedural delays. In the Bombay Police Act and the CrPC, no period was specified for grant of sanction to investigate somebody. Such cases remained pending for years," the senior IPS officer told PTI.

"The government has now made it binding for the sanctioning authority to give its consent within 90 days, or else the sanction shall be deemed to have been accorded. So the government has made it harder for the corrupt to go scot-free," he added.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2015 says that the "sanctioning authority shall take a decision within a period of ninety days from the date of the receipt of the proposal for sanction, and in case the authority fails to take the decision within the said period ...the sanction shall be deemed to have been accorded.