The Supreme Court reiterated that the alleged invalidity of sanction cannot be a ground to discharge an accused in a criminal case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act).

A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma allowed appeals filed by the Karnataka Lokayukta Police, setting aside a Karnataka High Court order that discharged the accused on the ground of lack of sanction.The High Court also quashed the money laundering case as well which was based on the corruption case.

Sanction Issue Cannot Be Examined At Pre-Trial Stage

The Supreme Court held that the approach of the High Court was “obviously contrary to law,” pointing to Section 19(3)(a) of the PC Act.

The bench cited precedents including State v. T. Venkatesh Murthy (2004) , State of M

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