New Delhi, April 19: The Supreme Court on Monday set a six-month deadline for the Uttar Pradesh Government to decide grant of sanction for prosecution of State Government officials involved in a scam involving distribution of subsidized grains in the state.
The order came on an appeal filed by the State Government against a December 3, 2010 order passed by the Allahabad High Court which had directed all concerned officials guilty in the scam to be prosecuted within three months. Protesting against the unusual order, senior advocate KK Venugopal said that the decision runs contrary to the settled process in law which required sanction to be granted. On this ground it sought stay of the ruling.
A Bench of Justices RV Raveendran and AK Pattnaik refused to stay the order and instead sought to know how much time it required to decide on the question of sanction. The State finally agreed to the six-month suggestion offered by the court. The Bench in turn stayed the portion of order ordering launch of prosecution against accused officials. The matter had reached the HC by way of a PIL filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi who alleged a multi-crore scam in distribution of food grains through public distribution system to BPL families.
–Agencies–