The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that its 2014 verdict striking down a legal provision which mandated the Central Bureau of Investigation to take permission from the Centre before investigating corruption cases against senior government officials will have a retrospective effect, PTI reported.
Monday’s ruling means that senior government bureaucrats accused in corruption cases even before the 2014 verdict can no longer seek immunity from arrest.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul declared that such employees will not get protection from arrest in cases filed between September 2003, when Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act was framed, and when it was declared invalid in May 2014.
Section 6A of the Act gave officers at the joint secretary level and above immunity from even being subjected to a preliminary inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation in corruption cases.
In 2014, the Supreme Court declared the provision as unconstitutional, saying it “impedes tracking down the corrupt senior bureaucrats”.
Section 6A, the order added, “suffers from the vice of classifying offenders differently for treatment thereunder for inquiry and investigation of offences, according to their status in life”.
A detailed order of the Monday’s judgement is yet to be made available in public domain.
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