Condemning the spread of the “cancer of corruption” among public servants, the Bombay HC recently upheld the conviction and one-year jail term handed to an assistant public prosecutor.
He had demanded Rs500 to get an accused acquitted in 1992
Condemning the spread of the “cancer of corruption” among public servants, the Bombay high court recently upheld the conviction and one-year jail term handed to an assistant public prosecutor (APP) for demanding bribe from an accused.
The APP, Shivdas Jadhav, was attached to a court in Jalna. In 1992, he approached an accused, Amrutlal Bhurewal, and demanded Rs500 to secure his acquittal. The accused alerted the anti-corruption bureau, which laid a trap and caught Jadhav red-handed. In 1994, a Jalna court convicted Jadhav and sentenced him to a year’s rigorous imprisonment.
Dismissing Jadhav’s appeal against his conviction, Justice VR Kingaonkar said, “The corrupt influences gradually erode the strength of democratic institutions and take away credibility of the organs in the government. The cancer of corruption is more dangerous to judicial system which is the institution in which a common man has still certain amount of faith. The instances like present one give serious jolt to the faith of litigants in the judicial system.”
Noting that Jadhav was an officer of the court and a public servant, the judge said, “The efficiency in public service would improve only when the public servants exhibit honesty in day-today affairs.”The judge said that Jadhav had failed the trust reposed in him by the prosecution department as well as by the court.
The court rejected Jadhav’s argument that he was being framed in the case by Bhurelal due to personal vendetta. He claimed that while he was having a cup of tea near the court Bhurelal had “shoved something” in his coat pocket. The police caught him when he put his hand in the pocket to check the contents.
Quoting statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, Justice Kingaonkar said, “Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.” The judge added, “Not only that such corruption causes loss of faith in public administration, but it also demoralises bunch of honest officers in the concerned institution. There cannot be duality of opinion that corrupt practices adopted by members of the Bar or members of the prosecution wing tarnish image of the judicial system as such.”
m_anshika@dnaindia.net
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