The Evening Wrap: Public servants can be convicted for corruption with circumstantial evidence

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday held that the demand and acceptance of bribe or illegal gratification by a public servant can be inferred by a court on circumstantial proof in the absence of direct evidence. The Bench led by Justice S. Abdul Nazeer said the “stink of corruption” has a “pervasive impact” on the efficient administration and governance of the country. Corrupt officials have a demoralising effect on honest public servants. Corruption by public servants has become a “gigantic problem”. Large-scale corruption retards nation-building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count, the Court observed. “We hope and trust that complainants and prosecution make sincere efforts to ensure that corrupt public servants are brought to book and convicted, so that the administration and governance becomes unpolluted and free from corruption,” Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who authored the judgment for the five-judge Bench, appealed. The other judges on the Bench were Justices B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian. The Court, quoting from its preceding judgments on the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, said it is a “sad but bitter reality that corruption is corroding, like cancerous lymph nodes, the vital veins of the body politics, social fabric of efficiency in the public service and demoralising the honest officers”. The Bench was answering a reference on the question whether public servants could be convicted for corruption under Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) and 13 (1)(d)(i) and (ii) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) in the absence of direct oral or documentary evidence due to unavailability of the complainant owing to his death or for any other reasons. “In the absence of the evidence of the complainant (through direct, primary, oral, documentary evidence), it is permissible to draw a deduction of culpability or guilt of a public servant under Sections 7, 13 (1)(d)(i) and (ii) read with 13(2) based on other evidence used by the prosecution,” Justice Nagarathna observed. The prosecution can prove its case of corruption with the help of any other witness, oral or documentary evidence or circumstantial evidence in cases in which the complainants have turned hostile. The trial would not abate or result in an acquittal. Lok Sabha clears Bill to include Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran tribes in ST list of Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha on December 15, 2022 passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State through a voice vote after the discussion on the Bill was concluded and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda moved a motion for the House to pass it. VCK MP D Ravikumar had moved an amendment to the Bill to change the names of the tribes to “Narikoravar” and “Kuruvikkarar”, which was supported by DMK MP DNK Senthilkumar, CPI member K Subbarayyan. But when put to voice vote, this amendment was defeated. In response to the point on changing the spelling of these communities to something that is more respectful, Munda said, “We took notice of this matter and immediately reached out to the state government to correspond with them. We got them to provide the revenue records which contain mentions of these communities from decades ago and the spelling that has been brought in has been according to these records only.” In his concluding remarks on the Bill, Munda rose in Lok Sabha to say that this was a very important one. “Tamil Nadu’s population is over 7 crore and these communities number at just about 27,000 and the importance of reaching them is something the Narendra Modi government understands. The fact that we are choosing to focus on the development of a community of 27,000 people in a country with over 130 crore, shows this government’s thinking. This is not vote politics.” On Thursday, even as Munda said that these communities are primarily hunter-gatherers, Senthilkumar (DMK) and others pointed out that the Tendu leaves they collect for their livelihoods, now that hunting is illegal, has a GST of 18%, which in no way allows for them to live off their livelihoods. During the discussion on the Bill over the last two days, several members consistently raised the point that just including them in the ST list will not be enough and that the government must think of framing policies that actually benefit them. Members like Supriya Sule of the NCP also urged the government to consider the requests of many other communities demanding ST status and bring a comprehensive Bill for the same instead of bringing Bills “piece-by-piece”. SC to decide if electoral bonds plea should be heard by Constitution Bench in last week of January The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine in the last week of January a plea to refer to a Constitution Bench a series of petitions accusing the electoral bonds scheme of illegally facilitating anonymous donations to political parties days before polls are due. A Bench led by Justice B. R. Gavai listed the case for the least week of January 2023. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, requested the Court for an urgent hearing, saying the question of reference to a Constitution Bench could be heard and decided quickly at an early date. Justice Gavai said the case had been pending since 2015. Bhushan said the petitioners had made several requests for early hearing. The Bench, however, pointed out that there were no elections due in the interregnum before the last week of January even as the petitioners urged it to list the case for the first week of the new year. Bhushan submitted there was now an election “every two or three months”. The case has a new petition which has challenged a recent government notification allowing the sale of electoral bonds for an additional 15 days in Assembly election years. This petition has sought the quashing of the November 7 notification issued by the Finance Ministry amending the electoral bonds scheme. “An additional period of 15 days shall be specified by the central government in the year of general elections to the legislative assembly of states and Union territories with the legislature,” the gazette notification had said. Nirav Modi loses bid to take extradition fight to U.K. Supreme Court Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, on Thursday suffered another setback in his legal battle against his extradition as the High Court in London denied him permission to appeal against the move in the U.K. Supreme Court. In a judgment order pronounced at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that “the Appellant’s [Nirav Modi] application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused”. In a ruling delivered speedily within just over a week of the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) submitting its response to the 51-year-old diamantaire’s permission to appeal application on behalf of the Indian Government, the judges also ruled that the “certification of a point of law be refused” that would have allowed his plea to progress to the higher court. An appeal on the grounds of a point of law of general public importance is a high threshold that is not met very often and this refusal significantly limits Mr. Modi’s remaining legal options in the U.K. against extradition to India. The latest High Court order also directs Mr. Modi to pay the legal costs related to the latest application, assessed in the sum of GBP 150,247.00. Last month, Mr. Modi lost an appeal on mental health grounds when the same two-judge High Court bench ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Mr. Modi, meanwhile, remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in London since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019. “If they refuse to certify a question and leave to appeal then that is the end of the road,” the CPS previously explained, with relation to the appeals process in U.K. courts. As his attempt to have his appeal heard in the Supreme Court in London has now failed, in principle, Mr. Modi can apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to try and block his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the U.K. is a signatory. The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also extremely high because he would also have to demonstrate that his arguments on those grounds before the U.K. courts have been previously rejected. U.K. Home Office sources have indicated that it is still unknown when extradition may take place as Mr. Modi still has legal challenges open to him. The dismissal of the High Court appeal last month marked a major win for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the businessman, who has been in prison since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019. There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamantaire in India — the CBI case of fraud on the PNB which caused losses equivalent to over GBP 700 million, the ED case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings. Then U.K. Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Mr. Modi’s extradition based on Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruling in April 2021 and the case is now in its final stages of legal appeals. Delhi acid attack | Victim able to see, says family; DCW issues notice to 2 e-commerce firms for allowing sale of acid The family of the 17-year-old acid attack survivor in Delhi, on Thursday, said that the girl’s eyesight has not been affected and her facial burn injuries, as per doctors, will also heal over time. However, the victim continued to remain in the ICU of Safdarjung Hospital, her uncle informed. The girl suffered injuries to her eyes in the attack allegedly planned by her neighbour Sachin Arora. “Her vision has not been affected. She is able to see and is talking,” the uncle said, adding that it was “shocking” for them to learn about his (Arora’s) involvement. Besides Arora, his friends Harshit Aggarwal (19) and Virender Singh (22) have also been arrested. In a statement, police said that on the basis of technical evidence, it was found that the acid was procured from e-commerce platform Flipkart. The company has been issued a notice. Meanwhile, Flipkart said that it strongly condemns the incident. “The Flipkart marketplace closely monitors and delists products that violate expected standards. Strict action is taken against sellers who are found to be engaged in selling products that are illegal, unsafe, and prohibited. The concerned seller has been blacklisted, and we are extending all support to the authorities in their investigation,” the company said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Commission for Women wrote to the chief executive officers of Amazon and Flipkart in connection with the attack and sought the “reason for the availability of acid” on their platforms. The Commission further sought the details of sellers who have placed ‘acid’ as a product on the two platforms. “Please inform the reason for availability of acid on the e-shopping platform. Please provide complete details of sellers who have placed ‘acid’ as a product on your platform. Whether license of the seller was checked before posting the acid product on the online platform? If not, please provide reasons for the same. Whether photo ids of those purchasing acid online were sought? If yes, please provide a complete list of the purchasers along with their photo ids. If no, please provide reasons for the same,” the letter stated. In Brief: Russian shelling killed two people in the southern city of Kherson, the Ukrainian presidency said, in the latest such bombardment since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month. “The enemy hit the centre of the city again. One hundred metres from the Kherson region administrative building,” the deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on social media. “There is information about two people killed. Emergency services are on site,” he added. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 15 DECEMBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Dear reader, We have now made it easier for you to manage your The Hindu newsletter subscriptions in one place! 1. Visit [The Hindu newsletters page]( 2. Click MANAGE tab and then click LOGIN / SIGN UP 3. If you don’t have an account with The Hindu, please click SIGN UP OR If you already have an account with The Hindu with this email ID, please login using the email ID Public servants can be convicted in corruption case on circumstantial evidence basis, says Supreme Court A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday held that the [demand and acceptance of bribe or illegal gratification by a public servant can be inferred by a court on circumstantial proof]( in the absence of direct evidence. The Bench led by Justice S. Abdul Nazeer said the “stink of corruption” has a “pervasive impact” on the efficient administration and governance of the country. Corrupt officials have a demoralising effect on honest public servants. Corruption by public servants has become a “gigantic problem”. Large-scale corruption retards nation-building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count, the Court observed. “We hope and trust that complainants and prosecution make sincere efforts to ensure that corrupt public servants are brought to book and convicted, so that the administration and governance becomes unpolluted and free from corruption,” Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who authored the judgment for the five-judge Bench, appealed. The other judges on the Bench were Justices B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian. The Court, quoting from its preceding judgments on the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, said it is a “sad but bitter reality that corruption is corroding, like cancerous lymph nodes, the vital veins of the body politics, social fabric of efficiency in the public service and demoralising the honest officers”. The Bench was answering a reference on the question whether public servants could be convicted for corruption under Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) and 13 (1)(d)(i) and (ii) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) in the absence of direct oral or documentary evidence due to unavailability of the complainant owing to his death or for any other reasons. “In the absence of the evidence of the complainant (through direct, primary, oral, documentary evidence), it is permissible to draw a deduction of culpability or guilt of a public servant under Sections 7, 13 (1)(d)(i) and (ii) read with 13(2) based on other evidence used by the prosecution,” Justice Nagarathna observed. The prosecution can prove its case of corruption with the help of any other witness, oral or documentary evidence or circumstantial evidence in cases in which the complainants have turned hostile. The trial would not abate or result in an acquittal. Lok Sabha clears Bill to include Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran tribes in ST list of Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha on December 15, 2022 passed the [Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022]( to include the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State through a voice vote after the discussion on the Bill was concluded and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda moved a motion for the House to pass it. VCK MP D Ravikumar had moved an amendment to the Bill to change the names of the tribes to “Narikoravar” and “Kuruvikkarar”, which was supported by DMK MP DNK Senthilkumar, CPI member K Subbarayyan. But when put to voice vote, this amendment was defeated. In response to the point on changing the spelling of these communities to something that is more respectful, Munda said, “We took notice of this matter and immediately reached out to the state government to correspond with them. We got them to provide the revenue records which contain mentions of these communities from decades ago and the spelling that has been brought in has been according to these records only.” In his concluding remarks on the Bill, Munda rose in Lok Sabha to say that this was a very important one. “Tamil Nadu’s population is over 7 crore and these communities number at just about 27,000 and the importance of reaching them is something the Narendra Modi government understands. The fact that we are choosing to focus on the development of a community of 27,000 people in a country with over 130 crore, shows this government’s thinking. This is not vote politics.” On Thursday, even as Munda said that these communities are primarily hunter-gatherers, Senthilkumar (DMK) and others pointed out that the Tendu leaves they collect for their livelihoods, now that hunting is illegal, has a GST of 18%, which in no way allows for them to live off their livelihoods. During the discussion on the Bill over the last two days, several members consistently raised the point that just including them in the ST list will not be enough and that the government must think of framing policies that actually benefit them. Members like Supriya Sule of the NCP also urged the government to consider the requests of many other communities demanding ST status and bring a comprehensive Bill for the same instead of bringing Bills “piece-by-piece”. SC to decide if electoral bonds plea should be heard by Constitution Bench in last week of January The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to [examine in the last week of January a plea to refer to a Constitution Bench]( a series of petitions accusing the electoral bonds scheme of illegally facilitating anonymous donations to political parties days before polls are due. A Bench led by Justice B. R. Gavai listed the case for the least week of January 2023. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, requested the Court for an urgent hearing, saying the question of reference to a Constitution Bench could be heard and decided quickly at an early date. Justice Gavai said the case had been pending since 2015. Bhushan said the petitioners had made several requests for early hearing. The Bench, however, pointed out that there were no elections due in the interregnum before the last week of January even as the petitioners urged it to list the case for the first week of the new year. Bhushan submitted there was now an election “every two or three months”. The case has a new petition which has challenged a recent government notification allowing the sale of electoral bonds for an additional 15 days in Assembly election years. This petition has sought the quashing of the November 7 notification issued by the Finance Ministry amending the electoral bonds scheme. “An additional period of 15 days shall be specified by the central government in the year of general elections to the legislative assembly of states and Union territories with the legislature,” the gazette notification had said. Nirav Modi loses bid to take extradition fight to U.K. Supreme Court Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, on Thursday suffered another setback in his legal battle against his extradition as the [High Court in London denied him permission to appeal against the move in the U.K. Supreme Court](. In a judgment order pronounced at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that “the Appellant’s [Nirav Modi] application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is refused”. In a ruling delivered speedily within just over a week of the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) submitting its response to the 51-year-old diamantaire’s permission to appeal application on behalf of the Indian Government, the judges also ruled that the “certification of a point of law be refused” that would have allowed his plea to progress to the higher court. An appeal on the grounds of a point of law of general public importance is a high threshold that is not met very often and this refusal significantly limits Mr. Modi’s remaining legal options in the U.K. against extradition to India. The latest High Court order also directs Mr. Modi to pay the legal costs related to the latest application, assessed in the sum of GBP 150,247.00. Last month, Mr. Modi lost an appeal on mental health grounds when the same two-judge High Court bench ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Mr. Modi, meanwhile, remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in London since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019. “If they refuse to certify a question and leave to appeal then that is the end of the road,” the CPS previously explained, with relation to the appeals process in U.K. courts. As his attempt to have his appeal heard in the Supreme Court in London has now failed, in principle, Mr. Modi can apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to try and block his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the U.K. is a signatory. The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also extremely high because he would also have to demonstrate that his arguments on those grounds before the U.K. courts have been previously rejected. U.K. Home Office sources have indicated that it is still unknown when extradition may take place as Mr. Modi still has legal challenges open to him. The dismissal of the High Court appeal last month marked a major win for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the businessman, who has been in prison since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019. There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamantaire in India — the CBI case of fraud on the PNB which caused losses equivalent to over GBP 700 million, the ED case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings. Then U.K. Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Mr. Modi’s extradition based on Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruling in April 2021 and the case is now in its final stages of legal appeals. Delhi acid attack | Victim able to see, says family; DCW issues notice to 2 e-commerce firms for allowing sale of acid The family of the 17-year-old acid attack survivor in Delhi, on Thursday, said that the girl’s eyesight has not been affected and her facial burn injuries, as per doctors, will also heal over time. However, the victim continued to remain in the ICU of Safdarjung Hospital, her uncle informed. The girl suffered injuries to her eyes in the attack allegedly planned by her neighbour Sachin Arora. “Her vision has not been affected. She is able to see and is talking,” the uncle said, adding that it was “shocking” for them to learn about his (Arora’s) involvement. Besides Arora, his friends Harshit Aggarwal (19) and Virender Singh (22) have also been arrested. In a statement, police said that on the basis of technical evidence, it was found that the acid was procured from e-commerce platform Flipkart. The company has been issued a notice. Meanwhile, Flipkart said that it strongly condemns the incident. “The Flipkart marketplace closely monitors and delists products that violate expected standards. Strict action is taken against sellers who are found to be engaged in selling products that are illegal, unsafe, and prohibited. The concerned seller has been blacklisted, and we are extending all support to the authorities in their investigation,” the company said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Commission for Women wrote to the chief executive officers of Amazon and Flipkart in connection with the attack and sought the “reason for the availability of acid” on their platforms. The Commission further sought the details of sellers who have placed ‘acid’ as a product on the two platforms. “Please inform the reason for availability of acid on the e-shopping platform. Please provide complete details of sellers who have placed ‘acid’ as a product on your platform. Whether license of the seller was checked before posting the acid product on the online platform? If not, please provide reasons for the same. Whether photo ids of those purchasing acid online were sought? If yes, please provide a complete list of the purchasers along with their photo ids. If no, please provide reasons for the same,” the letter stated. In Brief: [Russian shelling killed two people in the southern city of Kherson]( the Ukrainian presidency said, in the latest such bombardment since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month. “The enemy hit the centre of the city again. One hundred metres from the Kherson region administrative building,” the deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on social media. “There is information about two people killed. Emergency services are on site,” he added. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Interested in daily updates from Tamil Nadu? 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