25-year wait in high court, SC for finality in corruption case | India News
NEW DELHI: The SC has lamented the erosion of public confidence in the judiciary over decades, especially due to the slow pace of justice delivery to common citizens. This week, it closed a corruption case that had dragged on for nearly 32 years — six years in the trial court, 14 years in the High Court and 11 years in the SC, reports Dhananjay Mohapatra. The case related to the alleged siphoning of 400 bags of cement for the Public Works Division at Aurangabad on March 24, 1994. The trial court convicted the accused six years later on April 3, 2000. The Bombay High Court took more than 14 years to agree with the trial court’s decision.On appeal, the case was pending in the SC for a decade before it was listed for final hearing before a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan, which reserved the verdict on August 21 last year. Justice Mahadevan acquitted the accused on Friday after almost six months.Justice Mahadevan said, “Both the trial court and the High Court have held that the appellants (accused) have failed to provide any satisfactory explanation or documentary justification for the possession of such (bags of cement). These findings are largely true and supported by the evidence on record.” Despite the evidence against the accused, a bench of Justices Nagarathna and Mahadevan acquitted the accused on the ground that when the prosecution charged them under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act on the date of liming of cement, it was not a commodity covered by that Act.“This, it said, is a case where the investigating agency should have applied the appropriate provisions of the Indian Penal Code regarding the nature of the allegations and the evidence collected,” it said and acquitted the accused, “therefore, the fault lies with the investigating agency.”
