In Brief
The Supreme Court allowed an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging a High Court order that rejected the prosecution's application to bring the investigative authorisation order on record. The FIR against an Income Tax Officer for possessing disproportionate assets was registered in 2002 and a charge-sheet filed in 2005, but the authorisation document was not submitted initially. The Court held that procedural lapses must not obstruct substantive justice in corruption cases, and that the investigator could subsequently produce the missing document. However, it directed an administrative inquiry into the repeated unexplained delays spanning years."
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