Review GR on prosecution of govt servants

The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the State government to review an earlier resolution issued by it, that allows a period of six months for carrying out an open inquiry into criminal cases against public servants, and seek extension for sanctioning prosecution from the home department.

A division bench of Justice RM Sawant and Justice Sadhana Jadhav said, "Open inquiries are pending for over five years in some cases, so are proposals for getting sanctions to prosecute. It has to be done in a time bound manner or else the entire purpose is defeated."

The court made this suggestion while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Ankur Patil challenging a government circular which mandated the government's nod to prosecute public servants. The PIL claimed that the anti-corruption bureau cannot prosecute such cases in the absence of a sanction and pointed out that there are at least 50 pending cases.