The court emphasized that valid sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act is essential for prosecution, and failure to disclose material facts by petitioners undermines their claim.

JUDGMENT :

Vinod Diwakar, J.

1. Heard Shri Manish Gupta along with Shri Shiv Sagar Singh, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, Shri Gyan Prakash, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri Sanjay Kumar Yadav, learned counsel appearing for the CBI.

2. Pursuant to the issuance of the impugned Sanction Order[Sanction for Prosecution bearing No.5107(1)/77/4/23-27N/20T.C, Lucknow dated 24.8.2023 issued by the Special Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh]hereinafter referred to as the ‘impugned order’), the petitioners have filed the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking to quash and set aside the impugned order granting sanction for the petitioners’ prosecution in the case registered as RC/DST/2015/A/004/STB/DLI by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) upon the High Court’s direction.

3. In order to decide the contentions raised in these petitions, succinct facts are imperative to arrive at a just and reasonable conclusion within the given factual context. For the sake of convenience, the salient facts are delineated as follows:

4. The core of the accusations emanates from the initial FIR registered on 13.1.2012 as Case Crime No.280 of 2012, invoking sections 409, 420, 466, 467, 469, 471 and 120-B IPC read with sections 13(1)(d) & 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 at P.S. Sector-39 NOIDA, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh by the local police. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CBCID), Meerut, for an impartial and unbiased investigation; upon completion of the investigation, the CBCID submitted its final report before the court of learned Special Judge (SC/ST), Gautam Budh Nagar, which was accepted on 27.11.2014.

5. The closure report was challenged before the High Court and in pursuance to the order dated 16.7.2015 passed by the Lucknow Bench of this Court in Misc. Bench No.12396 of 2014, the STF Branch of CBI re-registered an FIR bearing Case No. RC/DST/2015/A/004 on 30.7.2015 against Yadav Singh, the then Chief Engineer, NOIDA/Greater Noida and Yamuna Express Authority and other unknown persons, under section 120-B IPC read with sections 409, 420, 466, 467, 469 and 471 IPC read with section 13(2) & 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The CBI was directed to conduct an investigation into the allegations of corruption and illicit accumulation of money to Rs. 954 Crores by Yadav Singh, other accused persons and entities connected thereto in the award of contracts.

6. Against this backdrop, the CBI took over the investigation and concluded the first phase of investigation on 15.3.2016, and accordingly filed the charge-sheet against Rajeev Kumar (JE), R.D. Sharma (JE), Ompal Singh (JE), Devi Ram Arya (Assistant Project Engineer), Jashpal Singh (Assistant Project Engineer), Ramendra (Project Engineer) and Yadav Singh (Chief Mechanical Engineer) and other private accused persons for commission of offences under section 120-B read with sections 420, 109, 468, 471 IPC and section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The CBI concluded the investigation with the finding “that the further investigation in the instant case is still continuing”, and if any new evidence emerged against any of the above-mentioned accused persons or any other, a supplementary charge-sheet along with the additional list of witnesses and/or documents, if any, will be filed in due course with the permission of this Court.”

7. The investigation culminated with the revelation that Junior Engineers, within their respective jurisdictions, prepared rough estimates by quoting exorbitant rates against the department’s interests. The Project Engineer and Assistant Project Engineer knowingly transmitted these rough estimates to higher authorities, contravening the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) manual for financia