Judgment

Thomas, J.-Leave granted.

2. In July 1989, respondent retired from Government service as Superintending Engineer of the P.W.D. under the Government of Kerala. About three years thereafter he was arraigned along with certain other persons before a Special Judge for offence under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (for short ‘the P.C. Act’) and Sections 406, 409, 201 read with Sections 120B and 109 of the Indian Penal Code. A learned Single Judge of the High Court of Kerala quashed the criminal proceedings against the respondent for want of sanction under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short “the Code”). State of Kerala, aggrieved by the said order of the High Court, has come up with this appeal by special leave.

3. The case against the respondent, in short, is that while he was working as Execu­tive Engineer at the Moovattupuzha Valley Irrigation Project Division, he joined himself into a criminal conspiracy with four other accused for defrauding the Government by misappropriating about 600 tonnes of steel rods (costing Rs. 1,26,000/-). When respondent was charge-sheeted for the aforesaid offences, he appeared before the Special Judge’s