S. Muralidhar, J.

The issue

1. An interesting question of law arises in this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution regarding prior sanction having to be taken by the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) from the State government in terms of Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (‘DSPE Act’) prior to investigating an offence in the concerned State.

2. The issue arises in the context of the steps taken by the CBI to investigate a case registered as RC No.217/2107/A0004/CBI/ACU-V in New Delhi on 18th February 2017 under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC) read with Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (‘PC Act’) against Mr. B.L. Agarwal, Mr. Bhagwan Singh, Mr. O.P. Sharma @ O.P. Singh @ Syed Burhanuddin, and some other unknown persons.

Background facts

3. The background facts are that earlier two cases were registered by the CBI against Mr. B.L. Agarwal, the then Health Secretary and present Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Chhattisgarh (Respondent No.3). The Petitioner is the brother-in