BENGALURU:  Calling the sanctions accorded by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) as “not known to law”, a court has discharged SC Jayachandra, the then Chief Engineer, Hemavathi Project, Goruru, Hassan, in a graft case. The department had reduced the disproportionate assets (DA) allegedly possessed by Jayachandra to 38 per cent from 98 per cent while according sanction to prosecute him by Lokayukta police. 

In the judgement, LXXVI Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge and Special Judge R N Sachin Kaushik noted that the court finds that the said sanction is not legal and valid, and therefore, the accused is discharged, with a liberty to the prosecution to file chargesheet after obtaining fresh sanction.  

“The Sanctioning Authority (SA) has accorded Sanction to prosecute the accused to the extent of DA of 38 percent only and has given the details with respect to its calculation of 38 per cent.

This is a procedure not known to law.  The SA has to either accord sanction, based on the materials and the report by the investigating officer, or, if the SA finds materials and the report not proper, reject the same, by not according Sanction,” the court said.

It added that the SA cannot sit within the four corners of its office, and without examining any witnesses or evidentiary value of documents, pass Sanction Order reducing or increasing percentage of DA. 

If the SA finds that the investigating officer (IO) has committed errors in calculation, by not holding certain income or by including somebody else’s asset as asset of accused, the SA is at liberty to not grant permission, citing reasons, but the SA cannot make an assessment of its own, it said. Jayachandra (59) had claimed that the sanction is not legal and valid. He also stated that his income is more than the assets and expenditure, and therefore, as no offence is made out, he prayed for discharge. 

Sanction after decade The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms sat on the Lokayukta’s proposal seeking sanction to prosecute Jayachandra for a decade and finally gave wrong sanction. The raid was conducted in December 2008 and sanction was accorded on February 7, 2017. 

DA worth Rs 1.96 crore

In the objections filed to the discharge application filed by Jayachandra, the Special Public Prosecutor contended that the sanction is legal and valid, and the accused made total assets of Rs 2.27 crore and his total expenditure is Rs 1.71 crore. The total of assets and expenditure comes to Rs 3.99 crore. The income of the accused and his family is Rs 2.02 crore and the disproportionate assets come to Rs 1.96 crore, which amounts to 97.08 per cent, as assessed by the Lokayukta police.  

“The accused, working as Chief Controller, Hemavathi Project, Goruru, Hassan at the time of raid on December 18, 2008, has made DA to the extent of 97.08 per cent  (between February 1, 1985 and December 18, 2008),” the SPP stated.