Supreme Court’s order saying that senior bureaucrats can be investigated without taking permission from the government is a landmark judgment with far-reaching implications that have a potential to seriously challenge the system of entrenched corruption in our state apparatus. For years, the bureaucracy has been the instrument of the political class in the latter’s effort to keep in place the deep-set discriminations and prejudices, with wide-ranging corruption in every sphere of operation. The collusion between the political, bureaucratic and corporate circuits has sustained the nefarious nexus of corruption, chipping away the fundamentals of our democratic republic. Government officials, along with politicians, have for long hidden behind the constitutional and legal impunities awarded to them by well-meaning drafters of democracy, but whom the bureaucrats of babuland have convincingly let down. That the top court has now decided to withdraw that shield, which had hitherto protected many a fraudulent bureaucrat from the glare of legal and penal ire, is therefore a much-needed and timely verdict. Seeking prior approval from concerned ministry has in effect always hindered probes into humongous scams and instances of laundering, resulting in either indefinite delays or unmerited closures of investigation into corruption cases. Since India has been riding an anti-graft wave for about a couple of years now, the disenchantment with mal-implemented welfare schemes and crony capitalism written on the wall, it is obvious that the SC verdict is a reaffirmation of the popular sentiment. Given government’s obduracy in cooperating with CBI in all the ongoing probes, this judgment is bound roll heads.