Dashrath vs State Of Maharashtra 2025 INSC 654- Art.142 Constitution - S.19 PC Act - Corruption - Sancton
Constitution of India - Article 142 - Exercise of power conferred by Article 142, in a case where a minimum sentence is prescribed by the statute, cannot be tinkered, for, the same would amount to legislation by the Court; and, prescription of a term of sentence quite contrary to what the Parliament has legislated would be legally impermissible. The statutory prescription in relation to punishment for a minimum period, unless challenged, cannot be reduced by this Court even in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution- It is only rarely, and in extraordinary cases, that this Court may, in the exercise of its plenary power to temper justice with mercy grant a convict a prison-term waiver. As and by way of illustration, a convict (on bail) who is too ill to understand why he needs to be sent to prison or too ill to be taken to prison or the like, could qualify for grant of extreme leniency by this Court but only on production of unimpeachable evidence to that effect. (Para 28-30)
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 - Section 19 - Sanction - There is a legal impediment to prosecute a public servant for corruption, if there be no sanction. Grant of sanction is an administrative function based on the subjective satisfaction of the sanctioning authority after due application of mind to the materials placed before him. Whether sanction should be granted or not is, however, not about mental satisfaction of the truth of the facts placed before the officer competent to grant sanction but all that is necessary for a sanction to be granted is for him to be satisfied about the existence of a prima facie case. (Para 11) If a draft order is placed before the sanctioning authority and he is satisfied that nothing needs to be added/deleted therefrom, the grant of sanction cannot be faulted merely on the ground of absence of addition of words to/deletion of words from the draft. (Para 14)
