State government nod must for inquiry against retired, serving officials

The move assumes significance as there have been demands from IAS officers and other civil servants seeking protection from the investigating agencies on bonafide decisions taken by them. They had cited legal cases being faced by former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, and former coal secretaries PC Parekh and HC Gupta, for 

their alleged involvement in second generation (2G) spectrum and coal blocks allocations scams respectively. 

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may shield both the serving and retired public servants, official sources said on Tuesday. 

It may make it mandatory for the probe agencies to seek prior approval from the competent authority which may be the appointing authority or administrative department where the officer concerned is working or has worked, they said. The likely decision of DoPT, which is nodal authority for anti-corruption matters, is based on the recommendations of a select committee of Rajya Sabha that had examined a bill seeking to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. A delegation of IAS officers had recently met Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh and demanded that honest civil servants need to be protected so that they do not shy away from taking administrative decisions.