The Kerala High Court on Friday, 14 August 2026, directed the Additional Chief Secretary for Backward Classes to consider the prosecution sanction requests made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the ₹15.85 crore SNDP Microfinance Scam case. Justice A. Badharudeen passed the interim order after interacting with investigating officer S. Sasidharan IPS, who appeared in person pursuant to the court’s earlier direction.
The court perused the detailed report on the investigation’s progress and noted that in eight out of the 124 registered cases, involvement of the accused persons has been established. In one of these cases, the final report is awaiting sanction by the government. The court observed that the Additional Chief Secretary for Backward Classes is the competent authority to grant such sanction.
Accordingly, the court directed the Additional Chief Secretary to consider the request for prosecution sanction and pass appropriate orders without fail on or before 10 September 2026.
The court was hearing two pleas registered in 2020 seeking the appointment of a Special Investigation Team headed by an efficient officer to investigate the crime registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) relating to the SNDP microfinance fraud case. During the pendency of these pleas, the court had granted multiple extensions to the investigating officers.
On 20 May, an order was passed directing the investigating officer to complete the probe by 20 June and file reports in all cases. During today’s hearing, the court orally remarked that the SIT had not complied with several earlier directions and was on the verge of contempt proceedings.
The court noted that the investigation had been slow due to the identity of the accused. However, the public prosecutor submitted that there had been no progress in the investigation for the last 10 years, but with the new government in place, steps would be taken to ensure no corrupt officer goes unpunished. The prosecutor added that more time was sought for filing proper final reports.
The prosecutor further pointed out that in one case where Further Action Dropped (FAD) had been filed, the investigating officer had taken efforts to reinvestigate and found misappropriation in that case as well.
After hearing the parties and reviewing the report, the court recorded the submission that prosecution sanction requests would be made in a time-bound manner. The investigating officer submitted that, regarding two other cases, the process for submitting prosecution sanction was under consideration and sought one week’s time to submit the records for obtaining sanction before the Additional Chief Secretary. The court directed the investigating officer to complete the process within seven days as submitted.
The investigating officer also submitted that in five other cases, the final report was under rectification and sought 20 days’ time to finalise the rectification process and submit the same for prosecution sanction. The court directed the investigating officer to complete the exercise within 20 days as submitted.
The case has been posted for further consideration on 10 September 2026. The case numbers are WP(C) No. 14599 of 2020 and Crl.MC No. 5539/2020, titled M.S. Anil v. State of Kerala and Ors. and connected case.