The petitioner is the Chairman of the Tamizhaga Nallatchi Iyakkam. He is also a former Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce, Law and Justice. He is a well-known figure in politics. He has filed this writ petition for the issue of a writ of mandamus to direct the first respondent to grant necessary sanction for prosecuting the second respondent under the provisions of Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in compliance with his request made on 2-11-1993. The first respondent is described as "the Deciding Authority and his Excellency the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Mardas." The second respondent is the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the third respondent is the State of Tamil Nadu represented by the Chief Secretary to Government. When the writ petition came up for admission on 29-4-1994, I entertained a doubt regarding its maintainability. Therefore, I ordered notice of motion returnable by 14-6-1994. All the respondents are now represented by counsel and counter-affidavits have been filed by the second and third respondents. All of them raised the plea that the writ petition as framed is not maintainable against the first respondent. Since this questi