The government has issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for police officers to seek mandatory prior approval before conducting any investigation against allegedly corrupt public servants.
According to the Personnel Ministry, an amendment carried out in the over 30-year-old Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988 in July 2018 bars a police officer from conducting any enquiry or inquiry or investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant without the previous approval of the authorities.
The Ministry said the SOPs were issued to standardise and operationalise procedures with a view to achieving uniform and effective implementation for prior approval processes. They provide for stage-wise processing of information received by a police officer, specify the rank of the police officer to seek prior approval and lay down a single-window procedure for it among others, said the order issued to secretaries of the central and state government departments.
“All administrative authorities, including ministries and departments of the central and the state governments, besides the investigating agencies, have been asked to ensure strict compliance of the SOPs,” it added.
For Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, Supreme Court Judges and Public Sector Undertaking chief only a Director General of police or in case of CBI, the director can approve the probe. For senior bureaucrats in the government and senior management in the PSU it can be DGP/ Director or ADG rank officers. IGs can decide on middle management while DIGs on junior management level officers.
The SOPs make it mandatory for a police officer to verify whether the information received by him pertains to the allegation of the commission of an offence by a public servant or whether it contains information to identify the public servant(s) against whom the offence has been alleged. While this move would standardise and operationalise procedures, it could make it more difficult for investigation teams to enquire against Ministers or public servants.