Supreme Court called for amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act
The Supreme Court has called for an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act to deal with the malaise, echoing the public discourse in the country. A vacation bench of Justice BS Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar observed “In this country, if there are two laws that need to be changed or amended to act as a deterrent, they are laws relating to anti-corruption and sale of spurious drugs,”. The court passed the observation while dismissing the appeal of an Assistant Excise Commissioner who was convicted in a graft case.
“The Income-Tax Department owes over Rs 40,000 crore to tax payers towards refund money. But they don’t give it. Why do you think they are holding the money? Because they want some bribe.”
“Similarly, take the case of sale and supply of spurious drugs which is rampant in the country. You may prosecute a person but he would get away paying a fine of Rs 500. But by that time, the patient would be dead. So, you need to amend these laws,” the bench said.
A special anti-corruption court had awarded a three-year sentence under PCA to the official charged with accepting a bribe of Rs 4,000. The Calcutta HC had reduced the sentence to one-and-ahalf years.
The counsel said that the alleged bribe amount of Rs 4,000 was more than the “permit fee” of Rs 850. The SC, while dismissing the appeal, said it found no reason to reduce the sentence further as sought by the convict since the minimum sentence under the Act was one year and the HC had already taken a lenient view by reducing the original sentence from three to one-and-half years.
amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act, Bribe, Delhi NCR, Laws relating to anti-corruption, Sale of spurious drugs, Supreme Court
