By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 3 Sep: On a complaint filed by RTI activist Vikesh Negi, a case of disproportionate assets has been registered against Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi and in this regard the court has issued a notice to the Pushkar Singh Dhami Government to take a final call on granting permission for prosecution of the minister. It may be recalled that the Vigilance Court’s Special Judge Manish Mishra in an order dated 2 September has asked the State Cabinet to inform the court about the decision regarding granting permission to prosecute the minister by 8 October while the next date of hearing in the case has been fixed on 19 October.
In his order, Special Judge Vigilance has referred to the report of Police (Vigilance) and has stated that according to the Indian Constitution, the Council of Ministers is the highest institution for decision-making of the executive. In such a case, if a case is pending before the highest body of the executive for decision in relation to a public servant, then it is not justified for any court to pass any order before the prescribed time period.
The judge said that it is true that the present case is to be analysed under Section-17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, but in view of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Dr Subramanian Swamy vs. Dr Manmohan Singh and others, AIR, 2012 Supreme Court, page-1185 a time period of three months has been fixed for a final decision for any prosecution sanction.
The Court also stated that in the light of the letter dated 8 July this year, it will be justified for the court to wait for the decision of the Council of Ministers ill 8 October. In his plea, RTI Activist has claimed about the alleged disproportionate assets of cabinet minister Ganesh Joshi.
