Prevention of Corruption Act | Sanctioning Authority's Competence, Application Of Mind Can Be Examined Only During Trial: J&K High Court

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has recently clarified that the absence of sanction to prosecute a public officer can be challenged at the beginning of a case, but challenges related to the competence of the sanctioning authority and the application of mind can only be raised during the trial. The petitioner further argued that once the sanction was sought by the respondent for prosecuting the petitioner for the commission of offences under Section 5 of the PC Act and 161 RPC, no sanction could have been granted for prosecuting the petitioner for offences under Section 467, 471, 201, 120-B of RPC and Section 6 of the J&K Forest Act. The petitioner also contended that since separate sanction was required for offences under RPC and J&K Forest Act, failure of the same reflects the non-application of mind by the sanctioning authority and lack of competence to grant sanction under specific sections of the law. Since the initial sanction sought by respondent No.5 covered specific sections, subsequent sanctions for RPC and J&K Forest Act offences did not require separate approvals, he argued.