In a significant development, the Haryana government has declined to grant ex-post facto (retrospective) approval to an FIR registered in 2022 under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against retired IAS officer Mr. Ashok Khemka. The FIR had been filed in Panchkula over allegations of irregular appointments during his tenure as Managing Director of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC).
The decision, taken just after Mr. Khemka’s retirement on April 30, 2025, is seen as a major relief for the 1991-batch IAS officer. The police are now expected to approach the court seeking cancellation of the FIR, which has remained legally unsustainable due to the lack of mandatory state approval at the time of its registration.
The Haryana government has also refused ex-post facto sanction for a separate FIR filed the same day in April 2022 under the PC Act against Mr. Sanjeev Verma, another IAS officer and then head of HSWC. That case was registered based on a cross-complaint lodged by Mr. Khemka.
Chief Minister Mr. Nayab Saini on May 1 formally ordered the rejection of the police’s request for retrospective sanction, citing non-compliance with Section 17-A of the PC Act. This provision, introduced through amendments and upheld by the Supreme Court in the Yashwant Sinha vs. CBI judgment dated November 14, 2019, mandates prior approval from the competent authority before launching investigations against public servants for actions related to their official duties.
Officials said the decision is in line with a communication dated August 18, 2022, from the then Chief Secretary to the Director General of Police, instructing adherence to the PC Act’s amended provisions. The move is also backed by a 2019 legal opinion from the then Advocate General of Haryana, who had affirmed that investigations under Chapter 12 of the CrPC require prior sanction before registering an FIR involving a public servant’s official functions.
Mr. Khemka had been booked under Section 13 of the PC Act and Section 420 of the IPC for alleged illegal appointments during his HSWC tenure. Alongside him, former officials of the Corporation—Som Nath, S.C. Kansal, and Naresh Kumar—were also named in the FIR.
Meanwhile, Mr. Verma was booked on the same date under various IPC sections, including those for conspiracy, framing false documents, and influencing legal action, based on Mr. Khemka’s counter-allegation. The PC Act was later invoked in that FIR as well.
With the government’s decision to deny retrospective sanction, both cases now stand on legally fragile ground, potentially closing a prolonged chapter of bureaucratic infighting and administrative controversy.
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