The government may provide a protective shield to both serving and retired public servants by making it compulsory for probe agencies like CBI to take previous approval of the central and state governments concerned before conducting any such enquiry against them. The move assumes significance as there have been demands from IAS officers and other civil servants of protection to them from the investigating agencies on bonafide decisions taken by them. They had cited legal cases being faced by former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, and former coal secretaries P C Parekh and H C Gupta, for their alleged involvement in second-generation (2G) spectrum and coal blocks allocations scams respectively. These officers have been known for their good reputation but are facing investigations for having obeyed orders. Troubled by the plight of honest officials after their retirement, a delegation of IAS officers had recently met Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh and demanded that honest civil servants need to be protected so that they do not shy away from taking administrative decisions. In this regard, the recommendations of a select committee of Rajya Sabha that had examined a bill seeking to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has come to the aid of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which has to process the proposal to provide legal protection to officials. The recommendations, among other things, state that "No police officer shall conduct any inquiry or investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant under this Act, where the alleged offence is relatable to any recommendation made or decision taken by such public servant in discharge of his official functions or duties, without the previous approval."