PMO Only Authority To Grant Sanction For Prosecuting IAS Officers, Centre Tells Madras High Court

Chennai: The Government of India has informed the Madras High Court that only the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) can grant statutory sanction to prosecute officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in criminal cases. The PMO alone was the competent authority for this purpose, the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, submitted before the Madras High Court in a case on Wednesday.

PMO authority over sanctions

The court had earlier asked the Department to explain why it took a long time to obtain sanction to prosecute IAS officers, who are facing corruption charges, and who was the competent authority to grant sanction for it.

The DoPT argued that in all such cases the files are sent to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for its remarks and then forwarded to the PMO, seeking sanction.

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Delay in Tamil Nadu cases

In respect of a corruption allegation against two IAS officers belonging to the Tamil Nadu cadre, the DoPT said it had received voluminous documents running to thousands of pages from the State government. The Department had to peruse it before sending them to the CVC. Thereafter, it would be sent to the PMO, it said, adding the issue on hand will be dealt with within the next two months.

Recording the submission, Justice Anand Venkatesh adjourned the case to November 12.