Judgment :

B. Sudershan Reddy, J.

Leave granted.

1.2. This appeal, which has come before us by special leave, is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Bombay at Goa dated 23.11.2006 in Criminal Revision Application No. 49 of 2006, by which the learned Single Judge affirmed the conclusion of the learned Special Judge, North Goa, Panaji that previous sanction was necessary to prosecute a Public Servant under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

2.3. The brief factual matrixof the case is as under:

On source information the Central Bureau of Investigation, Goa registered a preliminary enquiry being PE 2(A)/2002/CBI/ACB against the respondent no. 1 and others. The respondent No. 1 was the then Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise, Panaji. It was alleged that respondent no. 1 along with others purchased 48 ready built flats for Customs Department from the respective firms at an exorbitant price of Rs. 3,55,69,150/- though the actual market value was much less than the price paid. It was further alleged that undue favour of respondent no. 1 caused huge loss of Rs. 1.04 crores to the department. Shri Ram Avtar Yadav, Inspector CBI/ ACB/ Goa was conductin