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Soundarajan vs. State rep. by the Inspector of Police, Vigilance Anticorruption, Dindigul

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 377Decided 17 Apr 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 1592 of 2022
Abhay S. Oka · Rajesh Bindal

Background

The appellant, a Sub-Registrar in Tamil Nadu, was convicted for demanding and accepting a Rs. 500 bribe from a person (the complainant) to hand over his registered sale deed, and was caught in an anti-corruption trap. Both the trial court and the High Court had upheld his conviction under Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, at trial, the complainant himself turned hostile and testified there had been no demand for a bribe, and the "shadow witness" who was present during the trap did not testify to any specific demand for gratification being made in his presence either. The appellant also argued that no proper charge had been framed regarding the specific dates on which the demand was allegedly made.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that proof of both a demand for gratification and its acceptance is an essential legal requirement (a "sine qua non") for conviction under Section 7 of the PC Act, as reaffirmed by the Constitution Bench in Neeraj Dutta v. State (NCT of Delhi): mere suspicion or circumstantial hints are not enough without such proof. Since the complainant did not support the prosecution's case and the shadow witness's evidence did not establish an actual demand for a bribe (as opposed to just asking whether money had been brought), the essential ingredient of "demand" was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. On the separate charge-framing defect, the Court held that under Section 464 CrPC an omission in framing a charge is not automatically fatal unless it causes real prejudice to the accused's defence, which was not shown here, but it criticized trial courts for framing charges casually. Because demand was not proved, the conviction could not stand, and the appellant was acquitted.

Lesson Learnt

A bribery conviction cannot rest on suspicion alone. The prosecution must prove an actual demand for gratification (not just a vague inquiry about money) beyond reasonable doubt, and if the key witnesses fail to establish this, the accused is entitled to acquittal even where a trap was otherwise successfully laid.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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