New Delhi: Scrapping the protection given to senior bureaucrats in corruption cases, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that CBI can probe and prosecute them without Centre’s sanction, saying that corrupt public servants,whether high or low, are birds of the same feather and must be treated equally.
Quashing Section 6A of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act which makes it mandatory for the agency to get prior approval of the Centre to probe against an officer of joint secretary-rank or above, the court held that provision hampers impartial probe and protects crime-doers.
The investigating agency has frequently faced problems in proceeding against senior bureaucrats in the absence of government sanction.
“Can there be sound differentiation between corrupt public servants based on their status? Surely not, because irrespective of their status or position, corrupt public servants are corrupters of public power. The corrupt public servants, whether high or low, are birds of the same feather and must be confronted with the process of investigation and inquiry equally.
“Based on the position or status in service, no distinction can be made between public servants against whom there are allegations amounting to an offence under the PC Act, 1988,” a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha said.
It said Section 6-A is “directly destructive” and runs counter to the object the PC Act, 1988 and also undermines the object of detecting and punishing high level corruption.
The bench, also comprising justices AK Patnaik, SJ Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and FMI Kalifulla, said that classification made in Section 6-A on the basis of status in the government service is not permissible under Article 14 (equality before law) as it defeats the purpose of finding prima facie truth into the allegations of graft and it protects crime-doer.
“The purpose of a law may be either the elimination of a public mischief or the achievement of some positive public good. The classification made in Section 6-A neither eliminates public mischief nor achieves some positive public good.
“On the other hand, it advances public mischief and protects the crime-doer. The provision thwarts an independent, unhampered, unbiased, efficient and fearless inquiry / investigation to track down the corrupt public servants,” it said.
The apex court said previous approval from the Government necessarily required under Section 6-A would result in indirectly putting to notice the officers to be investigated before commencement of investigation.
“Section 6-A also suffers from the vice of classifying offenders differently for treatment thereunder for inquiry and investigation of offences, according to their status in life. Every person accused of committing the same offence is to be dealt with in the same manner in accordance with law, which is equal in its application to everyone,” it said.
“There is no rational basis to classify the two sets of public servants differently on the ground that one set of officers is decision-making officers and not the other set of officers. If there is an accusation of bribery, graft, illegal gratification or criminal misconduct against a public servant, then we fail to understand as to how the status of offender is of any relevance,” it said. (PTI)
