ORDER

Shrivastava, J. 1- The petitioner who is working as District Co-ordinator, Tribal Welfare Department, has filed the present petition challenging the order dated 23.2.2021 whereby the sanction has been granted by the respondent No.1 under section 19(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short ‘the PC Act’) for prosecuting the petitioner for offence under section 7, 13(B), 13(2) of the PC Act in Crime No.285 of 2019. The aforesaid crime has been registered against the petitioner on the basis of the trap which was organised.

2. Learned cousnel for the State has raised the preliminary objection that the petition is premature as the sanction has been granted by the competent authority and the petitioner will have the opportunity to raise objection against the order of sanction during trial.

3. The submission of counsel for the petitioner is that the order of sanction suffers from the defect of non-application of mind and it has been passed in a mechanical manner without considering that there is no material against the petitioner to implicate him in the alleged offence. He has further submited that the order of sanction can be challenged at this stage.

4. Having heard