State govt files reply to Sanan’s plea to President

SHIMLA: The government today sent its reply to the information sought by the Office of President of India on the issue of charge-sheet issued to Additional Chief Secretary Deepak Sanan who had submitted a Memorial to Pranab Mukherjee, requesting dropping of charges against him.

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 5

The government today sent its reply to the information sought by the Office of President of India on the issue of charge-sheet issued to Additional Chief Secretary Deepak Sanan who had submitted a Memorial to Pranab Mukherjee, requesting dropping of charges against him.

The reply was sent by the State Department of Personnel to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in Delhi for being sent to the Office of the President.

Sanan, a 1982 batch IAS officer and currently posted as ACS (Forest and Environment), had made a plea before the President of India through a memorial for dropping of his charge-sheet against him on the plea that even the Centre had turned down request of Himachal Government for prosecuting him.

It is reliably learnt that the plea taken by the Himachal Government in its reply is that a final decision on the charge-sheet issued against Sanan is yet to be taken by the competent authority. Following the issuing of charge-sheet, Sanan had filed in his reply but the state government has delayed taking a decision on his request. He had earlier also made a request to the Chief Secretary in September 2015 to drop the charge-sheet since the Centre had not granted prosecution sanction against him in the case registered against him by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Sanan had submitted the Memorial under Rule 25 of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeals Rules), 1960. Under this provision, the President of India has the powers to direct the state government to drop the charge-sheet issued against an All-India Service Officer.

“The other plea given by the state government in response to Sanan’s argument that the charge-sheet be dropped since Centre had not granted prosecution sanction under Sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act is that he could still be prosecuted under the provisons of the CrPC,” revealed sources.

Sanan is due to retire on January 31, 2017 and is the senior most IAS officer after Chief Secretary, P Mitra who will be retiring later this month. As such the dropping of the charge-sheet against Sanan is crucial if he has to be considered for the post of Chief Secretary. With the state government delaying a final decision on his charge-sheet, he decided to approach the President, so that a decision could be taken before he retires and does not lose out on the opportunity to be elevated to the top post of Chief Secretary because of the charge-sheet.

The FIR was registered against Sanan along with another IAS officer Ajay Sharma on August 1, 2013, at the Vigilance Bureau police station in Dharamsala under Section 120-B of the IPC and Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. He had been accused of misusing his official position and conniving with others to issue an NOC for the commercial use of the land leased out to the HPCA for construction of Hotel Pavilion by reversing the earlier decision of the council of ministers, giving undue benefit to the cricket body.