Assets of graft accused can be seized before conviction
New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the government can bring special laws to control corruption, which it said was eating away the fundamental core of elective democracy and Constitutional governance.
Article Courtesy: The Times of India
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant upheld laws passed by Bihar and Odisha assemblies authorising the probe agencies to confiscate ill-gotten properties, including houses of corrupt public officials, even before their conviction in graft cases. The law was framed to deal with cases involving those occupying high public or political office.
The bench held that there were no infirmities in the law and turned down a bunch of petitions filed by those whose properties had been confiscated. "In a way, corruption becomes national economic terror. This social calamity warrants a different control, and hence, the legislature comes up with special legislation with stringent provisions," it said. The accused pleaded that they could not be treated as a 'special class' for alleged involvement in corruption cases and should be treated like other accused.
" ...in the context of the present Orissa Act, it is associated with high public office or with political office that are occupied by people who control the essential dynamics of power — which can be a useful weapon to amass wealth adopting illegal means. In such a situation, the argument that they were being put in a different class and should be tried in a separate special court solely because of the alleged offence, if nothing else, is a self-defeating one," the bench said.
"We are unable to accept the submission of the learned counsel for the appellants that the words high public or political office not being defined creates a dent in the provision. The said words, we are absolutely certain, convey a category of public servants which is well understood and there is no room for arbitrariness," it said.
Referring to its earlier verdicts, the SC said immoral acquisition of wealth destroys the energy of the people believing in honesty, and history records with agony of how they suffered. It said there should be zero tolerance towards any kind of corruption.
"A democratic republic polity hopes and aspires to be governed by a government which is run by the elected representatives who do not have any involvement in serious criminal offences or offences relating to corruption, casteism, societal problems affecting the sovereignty of the nation and many other offences," the bench said.
It said corruption should not be judged by degree as corruption causes disorder, destroys societal will to progress and paralyses the economic health of a country.