Arms licence case: HC seeks status report on prosecution sanction of 8 IAS officers

JAMMU: High court of J&K and Ladakh on Friday directed the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to file — within six weeks — a status report detailing its decision on the prosecution sanction of eight IAS officers allegedly involved in the 2012 arms licence case.

The CBI has investigated the case and alleged irregularities in the issuance of over 2.7 lakh arms licences between 2012 and 2016.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Arun Palli, while hearing the case, sought to know from Deputy Solicitor General of India, Vishal Sharma — representing MHA and DoPT — the precise time authorities would require to arrive at a formal decision for granting the sanction.

Sharma submitted that he had filed a latest status report regarding the proposals for granting prosecution sanction, and the process should not take more than six weeks. Following this, HC asked Sharma to submit within that timeframe an affidavit regarding the final decision on the sanction, and posted the next hearing for Oct 9.