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The Supreme Court has said that if tainted bureaucrats and lawmakers are allowed to rule the roost they could “paralyse” the functioning of democratic systems in the country.
A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat said: “When a public servant who is convicted of corruption is allowed to continue to hold public office, it would impair the morale of the other persons manning such office, and consequently that would erode the already shrunk confidence of the people in such public institutions besides demoralising the other honest public servants.’’ Expressing concern over rampant corruption in the country, the court said: “Corruption by public servants has now reached a monstrous dimension in India. Its tentacles have started grappling even the institutions created for the protection of the republic.’’
| The court allowed the petition of the Punjab government against the high court’s order that suspended the conviction of a revenue official under the Prevention of Corruption Act, who was nabbed taking a bribe of Rs 2,000 for an official favour.
“If honest public servants are compelled to take orders from proclaimed corrupt officers on account of the suspension of the conviction, the fallout would be one of shaking the system itself’,’’ the bench said. While relying and reiterating another judgment by the apex court, judges said it is necessary that the court should not aid the public servant who stands convicted of corruption charges to hold public office until he is exonerated by the superior court.
Toughness needed
The court also underlined the need for strong measures by the legislature, the judiciary and the executive in order to “intercept and impede” the tentacles of corruption which are “gripping the normal and orderly functioning of the public offices” and posing a threat to “democratic polity”.
The court emphatically stated that corrupt men don’t deserve judicial leniency. When a public servant was found guilty of corruption after a judicial adjudicatory process, judiciousness demanded that he should be treated as corrupt until he was exonerated by a superior court, the court observed in the ruling.
He can’t be restored to his job merely because his appeal has been admitted by a higher court.
“If such a public servant becomes entitled to hold public office and to continue to do official acts until he is judicially absolved from such findings by reason of suspension of the order of conviction, it is public interest which suffers and sometimes, even irreparably.’’ |
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