Sanction - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition sanction

Definition :

Sanction, 1. official approval or authorisation 2. A penalty or coercive measure that results from failure to comply with law, rule or order, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1341.

Sanction, for prosecution is a weapon to ensure dis-couragement of frivolous and vexatious prosecu-tion and is a safeguard for the innocent but not a shield for the guilty. The order of sanction ex facie discloses that the sanctioning authority had considered the evidence and other material placed before it, Mansuklal v. State of Gujarat, (1997) 7 SCC 622: (1977) SCC (Cri) 1120.

Sanction, is purely an executive function and not judicial function of the government and as sanction need not be based on legal evidence, State of Assam v. Niranjan Ghosh, (1995) 1 Gau LR 427.

Sanction, not only means prior approval, generally it also means ratification, Senior Food Inspector, Ananthapur v. Ravuru Subbiah, (1992) Cr LJ 2289.

Sanction, or prior approval of an authority, is made a condition precedent to prosecute in regard to specified offences. Sanction to prosecute for an offence is not, therefore, an ingredient of the offence, but really pertains to procedure, Kapur Chand Pukhraj v. State of Bombay, AIR 1958 SC 993: (1959) SCR 250: (1958) 2 STC 455: (1958) Cr LJ 1958.

Sanction, to prosecute the Chief Minister is the exclusive function of the Governor to be exercised by him in his discretion, State of Maharashtra v. Ramdas Shrinivas Nayak, AIR 1982 SC 1249.