Supreme Court delivers justice: Acquits a man after 20 years in a bribery case

On March 23, 2023, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Rajesh Bindal acquitted a man accused of accepting a bribe of 300 rupees in 2003. After 20 years of his conviction, the top Court provided justice against his conviction due to bribery charges. In the Jagtar Singh vs the State of Punjab case, the appellant challenged his conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which was ordered by the Trial Court on 5.8.2005. Further, the decision of the Trial Court was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 2nd March 2010.

In this case, the convict was working as a cleaner and demanded Rs. 500 as an illegal gratification for supplying a copy of the death certificate of Maghar Singh (deceased) in 2003, and accepted a sum of Rs. 300. The bench observed that the demand for illegal gratification was not proved whereas while giving the statement, the Supreme Court relied on the order passed by the Constitution bench in Neeraj Dutta vs. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi). The judgment stated that “the demand and recovery both must be proved to sustain a conviction under the Act.”

The top Court while hearing the matter on 23rd March opined that “the offer by the bribe giver and the demand by the public servant respectively have to be proved by the prosecution as a fact in issue. In other words, mere acceptance or receipt of an illegal gratification without anything more would not make it an offence under Section 7 or Section 13(1)(d) of the Act.” The bench further acquitted the case due to lack of evidence or proof, “In the absence of evidence of the complainant, it is permissible to draw an inferential deduction of culpability of a public servant under Section 7 and Section 12(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Act based on other evidence adduced by the prosecution.” Therefore, the impugned order passed by the High Court and Trial Court was set aside. 

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