Kashish Jain
Recently, the Supreme Court expressed the opinion that matters or instances of corruption must be strictly dealt with. It also stated that it is not necessary that convicted public servants are awarded simple imprisonment and this could be attributed to the fact the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 does not specify this description.
Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah were hearing a Special Leave Petition against a decision of the Karnataka High Court.
They upheld the Special Court’s conviction of the petitioner under sections 7, 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the PC, Act. They confirmed the order of simple imprisonment for 6 months with a fine for the offense punishable under section 7. However, they reduced the quantum of the sentence to one and a half years from two years, taking into consideration his old age.
S.7 of the Act, dealing with ‘Offences related to Public Servant being bribed’, stipulates that if such a public servant is found to be guilty, he or she shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which will not be less than 3 years and may extend to 7 years, with the additional element of fine.
As it stands today, section 13 of the act, condemns any public servant who committed criminal misconduct to imprisonment for a term not less than 4 years, extending up to 10 years and subject said public servant to fine.
In the current case, the petitioner had been working at the Secretary of Kavalaga Village (Gram Panchayat). It was stated that the wife of the complainant was selected under Ashraya Scheme for the sanction of construction of the house and as such the Government had sanctioned a sum of INR 35, 000 to his wife.
The aforementioned amount was ordered to be paid out in forum installments and accordingly, two installments had been paid out to him.
At the time of disbursing the third installment, the petitioner demanded INR 500 to give a cheque in favor of the wife of the complainant. Reluctant of bribing the complainant approached the police and lodged a complaint resulting in the crime being registered against the petitioner for offenses punishable under section 7, 13(1)(d) read with section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Upon the receipt of the complainant, the police sought to lay a trap and prepared a Demonstration Panchanama. The petitioner was successfully caught in the act and recorded.
After obtaining a sanction of prosecution from the competent authority, a charge sheet was filed against the petitioner/ accused for the aforementioned offenses.
After the trial reached completion, the Special Court arrived at the conclusion that the petitioner was guilty and sentenced the accused to undergo simple imprisonment for 6 months with a fine of INR 1000.
Further sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for two years with a fine of Rs.2,000/- for the offense punishable under Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of P.C.Act with default clause and it was ordered that all the substantive sentences shall run concurrently.