Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 – s.61(2) – Illegal gratification – Anticipatory bail – Denial – Petitioner-Audit Inspector with the Government demanded illegal gratification in connection with conducting of audit during the tenure of complainant’s wife as Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat – Co-accused actually collected the bribe amount for and on behalf of the petitioner from the complainant – FIR registered against the petitioner for the offence punishable u/s.7 of the 1988 Act and s.61(2) of the BNS 2023 – Application for anticipatory bail by the petitioner – High Court denied the bail – Correctness:
Held: High Court rightly denied anticipatory bail to the petitioner – Parameters for grant of anticipatory bail in a serious offence like corruption are required to be satisfied – Anticipatory bail can be granted only in exceptional circumstances where the Court is prima facie of the view that the applicant has been falsely enroped in the crime or the allegations are politically motivated or are frivolous – In the instant case, it cannot be said that any exceptional circumstances have been made out by the petitioner for grant of anticipatory bail and there is no frivolity in the prosecution – Presumption of innocence, by itself, cannot be the sole consideration for grant of anticipatory bail – Presumption of innocence is one of the considerations, which the court should keep in mind while considering the plea for anticipatory bail – Salutary rule is to balance the cause of the accused and the cause of public justice – Over solicitous homage to the accused’s liberty can, sometimes, defeat the cause of public justice – If liberty is to be denied to an accused to ensure corruption free society, then the courts should not hesitate in denying such liberty – Where overwhelming considerations in the nature aforesaid require denial of anticipatory bail, it has to be denied. [Paras 21, 23, 24, 32]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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