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State of Karnataka v. Nagesh

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 492Decided 16 Apr 2025
Crl.A. No.-000773-000773 - 2013
Justice Bela M. Trivedi · Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Background

In 1995, a Village Accountant (the respondent) allegedly demanded and accepted a Rs. 500 bribe from a complainant seeking a change in revenue mutation records, out of an original demand of Rs. 2,000. A trap was laid by the Lokayukta police, and the respondent was caught with marked currency notes. The Trial Court convicted him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, but the Karnataka High Court acquitted him in 2012, citing inconsistencies in witness testimony about which hand handled the money and where it was kept.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court gave undue weight to minor discrepancies while ignoring credible and detailed testimony from the complainant and the shadow witness, especially considering the witnesses were examined roughly ten years after the incident, making small memory lapses natural. The Court found all the essential ingredients of the bribery offence (the accused being a public servant, and the demand and acceptance of illegal gratification) clearly established. It restored the Trial Court's conviction and sentence, rejecting the High Court's acquittal as erroneous, and directed the accused to surrender within two weeks.

Lesson Learnt

Minor inconsistencies in witness testimony, especially after a long trial delay, should not be used to discard otherwise credible and corroborated evidence of demand and acceptance of a bribe; appellate courts must distinguish trivial discrepancies from ones that genuinely undermine a prosecution's case.

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

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