Himachal court concerned over tardy graft cases probe
June 17th, 2011 - 11:05 pm ICT by IANSShimla, June 17 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh High Court Friday took a serious view of tardy pace of corruption cases involving top government officials.
A division bench of Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice V.K. Sharma directed the state chief secretary to forward within a week the comments required by the union personnel ministry in a case pending for prosecution sanction from the ministry for over 14 months.
It also directed the ministry to take a call in the matter within a month.
The high court order comes on the plea of Sher Singh, a former drug controller who was arrested by the state vigilance bureau in an alleged bribery case and was placed under suspension. He was later reinstated.
When he filed the petition questioning a departmental inquiry against him, the high court asked for details of the officers arrested in similar cases and reinstated later.
The bench also noticed that in 12 cases, prior to 2005, the investigation was still in progress. It directed the state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau to file an affidavit regarding delay in completing investigation despite lapse of around six years.
Amicus curiae G.D. Verma said the vigilance bureau does not seriously look into many complaints against corruption filed by the public.
At least 23 senior government officials, including Indian Administrative Service officer Sanjay Gupta, two Himachal Administrative Services officers, additional superintendent of police-rank Himachal officer Mohinder Singh and Sher Singh have been named in the list of tainted officers which Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu supplied to the high court earlier in the case.
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- Virbhadra graft case: Court reserves order - Jan 05, 2012
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- Court comes down hard on Himachal government - Aug 15, 2011
- Virbhadra CD case: Witness moves court against prosecution - Apr 04, 2011
- Graft case: Virbhadra Singh fails to get reprieve in court - Jan 07, 2012
- Corruption case: Virbhadra Singh asked to appear in court - Oct 23, 2010
- Expose fake Himachal colleges, court tells CBI (Lead) - Aug 09, 2011
- Graft case: Shimla court summons Virbhadra Singh, wife (Lead) - Oct 23, 2010
- Trial judge free to examine Virbhadra in graft case: Court (Lead) - Jan 07, 2012
- Charge sheet to be filed against Virbhadra (Lead) - Oct 01, 2010
- Expose fake Himachal colleges, court tells CBI (Second Lead) - Aug 09, 2011
Tags: administrative service officer, administrative services, affidavit, amicus, bribery case, chief justice, chief secretary, corruption bureau, corruption cases, division bench, government officials, himachal pradesh, indian administrative service, kurian, police rank, sanction, sanjay gupta, sher singh, shimla, vigilance