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TMI Blog2011 (9) TMI 1191X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Rao-the Complainant, who was examined as PW-1, was posted as Yard Points Man, Grade 'A' under Station Superintendent, South Central Railway, Tanuku from December, 1995 to June, 1997. In June, 1997, due to excess staff at Tanuku, he was instructed to report at Head Quarters, Vijayawada and accordingly, when he reported there, he was asked to go back to Tanuku. Thereafter, he went back to Tanuku from where he was subsequently transferred to Rajahmundry. Thereafter, PW-1 made a representation to his senior officer requesting him for posting at Vijayawada, Cheerala, Vetapalam or Tenali. Later, PW-1 was transferred to Vijayawada. (c) As the appellant-accused was dealing with the transfers, the complainant (PW-1) met him on 05.11.1997 at his office to pursue about the issuance of the said transfer order. The appellant-accused asked him to come on 10.11.1997. When he met him on 10.11.1997, the appellant asked him to come on the next day as he was busy in pay-fixation work. On 11.11.1997, again he went to the office of the appellant but he could not find him on his seat. Again a day after i.e. on 13.11.1997, when he met the appellant-accused, he informed him that his request for transf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in this matter confining to the quantum of sentence only. In pursuance of the same, we permitted Mr. Rangaramanujam, learned senior counsel for the appellant to address his arguments confining to quantum of sentence imposed on the appellant-accused. As stated in the narration of facts, the appellant was convicted under Section 7 of the Act for which he was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default, simple imprisonment for one month. He was also convicted for the offence under Section 13(1)(d)(ii) read with Section 13(2) of the Act and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs. 500/-, in default, simple imprisonment for one month. The trial Court ordered that both the sentences of imprisonment shall run concurrently. The said conviction and sentence was affirmed by the High Court. If we confine ourselves to the limited extent of notice dated 28.01.2008, we have to hear both sides only on the quantum of sentence. However, Mr. Rangaramanujam, learned senior counsel for the appellant by drawing our attention to the recent judgment of this Court in Yomeshbhai Pranshankar Bhatt vs. State of Gujarat, ( ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sentence") the parties are entitled to urge all points and reopen the case as if they are free to do the same without any restriction. As a matter of fact, the last sentence in para 15 makes it clear that in the facts and circumstances of that case, they permitted the appellants to urge all points on merits. 5) In the case on hand, it is to be noted that on appreciation of oral and documentary evidence led in by the prosecution and the defence and on appreciation of entire materials, the court of first instance i.e. the trial Court convicted the appellant and sentenced him as mentioned above. The High Court, as an appellate Court, once again analysed all the material, discussed the oral and documentary evidence and finding that the prosecution had proved the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt concurred with the conclusion arrived at by the trial Court and dismissed the appeal of the appellant. Inasmuch as both the courts have thoroughly discussed the oral and documentary evidence with reference to the charges leveled against the appellant and in view of the limited order dated 28.01.2008 by this Court issuing notice confining to quantum of sentence only and even applyi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er named or otherwise shall, be punishable with imprisonment which shall be not less than six months but which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine. ... ....." (Emphasis supplied) 8) Section 13 deals with criminal misconduct by a public servant. As per sub-section (2) if any public servant commits criminal misconduct shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than one year but which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine. For clarity, we reproduce the said section hereunder: "13. Criminal misconduct by a public servant.- (1) A public servant is said to commit the offence of criminal misconduct, (a) If he habitually accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain from any person for himself or for any other person any gratification other than legal remuneration as a motive or reward such as is mentioned in Section 7; or (b) If he habitually accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain for himself or for any other person, any valuable thing without consideration or for a consideration which he knows to be inadequate from any person whom he knows to have been, or to be, or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e form of a proviso has been done away with in the 1988 Act. To put it clear, in the 1988 Act, if an offence under Section 7 is proved, the same is punishable with imprisonment which shall be not less than six months and in the case of Section 13, it shall not be less than one year. No other interpretation is permissible. Other circumstances pleaded for reduction of sentence: 10) In order to substantiate the claim with the regard to the above, learned senior counsel for the appellant has relied on the decision of this Court in Bechaarbhai S. Prajapati vs. State of Gujarat, (2008) 11 SCC 163 and based on the same requested this Court to modify the sentence to the extent of period already undergone. We have gone through the facts in that case. It is true that even in the cited decision, the appellant accused demanded only Rs. 250/- and it was paid and accepted. Finally, the Special Judge framed charges for offence punishable under Sections 7, 12, 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Act. The appellant therein was convicted for offence under Section 7(2) of the Act and appeal before the High Court was also dismissed. Thereafter, the same was challenged before this Court. This C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s lost his job, undergone the ordeal all along etc. a lenient view be taken in this case, it is useful to refer decision of this Court in State of M.P. vs. Shambhu Dayal Nagar, (2006) 8 SCC 693 wherein it was held that: "32. It is difficult to accept the prayer of the respondent that a lenient view be taken in this case. The corruption by public servants has become a gigantic problem. It has spread everywhere. No facet of public activity has been left unaffected by the stink of corruption. It has deep and pervasive impact on the functioning of the entire country. Large-scale corruption retards the nation-building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count. As has been aptly observed in Swatantar Singh v. State of Haryana, (1997) 4 SCC 14, 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 efficiency in public service would improve only when the public servant devotes his sincere attention and does the duty diligently, truthfully, honestly and devotes himself assiduously to the performance of the duties of his post. The reputation of corrupt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provide a ground in law on which the divorce could be granted. Decree of divorce has been granted to put quietus to all litigations between the parties and to save them from further agony, as it is evident from the judgments in Romesh Chander v. Savitri (1995) 2 SCC 7, Kanchan Devi v. Promod Kumar Mittal (1996) 8 SCC 90, Anita Sabharwal v. Anil Sabharwal (1997) 11 SCC 490, Ashok Hurra v. Rupa Bipin Zaveri (1997) 4 SCC 226, Kiran v. Sharad Dutt (2000) 10 SCC 243, Swati Verma v. Rajan Verma (2004) 1 SCC 123, Harpit Singh Anand v. State of W.B. (2004) 10 SCC 505, Jimmy Sudarshan Purohit v. Sudarshan Sharad Purohit (2005) 13 SCC 410, Durga Prasanna Tripathy v. Arundhati Tripathy (2005) 7 SCC 353, Naveen Kohli v. Neelu Kohli (2006) 4 SCC 558, Sanghamitra Ghosh v. Kajal Kumar Ghosh (2007) 2 SCC 220, Rishikesh Sharma v. Saroj Sharma (2007) 2 SCC 263, Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh (2007) 4 SCC 511 and Satish Sitole v. Ganga (2008) 7 SCC 734. However, these are the cases, where this Court came to rescue the parties on the ground for divorce not provided for by the legislature in the statute. 12. In Anjana Kishore v. Puneet Kishore (2002) 10 SCC 194, this Court while allowing a transfer peti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... difice for building up a superstructure. 16. Similar view has been reiterated in A.R. Antulay v. R.S. Nayak (1988) 2 SCC 602, Bonkya v. State of Maharashtra (1995) 6 SCC 447, Common Cause v. Union of India (1999) 6 SCC 667, M.S. Ahlawat v. State of Haryana (2000) 1 SCC 278, M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath (2000) 6 SCC 213, State of Punjab v. Rajesh Syal (2002) 8 SCC 158, Govt. of W.B. v. Tarun K. Roy (2004) 1 SCC 347, Textile Labour Assn. v. Official Liquidator (2004) 9 SCC 741, State of Karnataka v. Ameerbi (2007) 11 SCC 681, Union of India v. Shardindu (2007) 6 SCC 276 and Bharat Sewa Sansthan v. U.P. Electronics Corpn. Ltd. (2007) 7 SCC 737. 17. In Teri Oat Estates (P) Ltd. v. UT, Chandigarh (2004) 2 SCC 130 this Court held as under: (SCC p. 144, para 36) "36. ... sympathy or sentiment by itself cannot be a ground for passing an order in relation whereto the appellants miserably fail to establish a legal right. ... despite an extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction contained in Article 142 of the Constitution of India, this Court ordinarily would not pass an order which would be in contravention of a statutory provision." 18. In Laxmidas Morarji v. Behrose Darab Madan (2009) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nterest to do complete justice, if exercise of such jurisdiction is not be contrary to any express provision of law. In Supreme Court Bar Association v. Union of India: 1998 (4) SCC 409, this Court observed: The Supreme Court in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 142 has the power to make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice "between the parties in any cause or matter pending before it". The very nature of the power must lead the court to set limits for itself within which to exercise those powers and ordinarily it cannot disregard a statutory provision governing a subject, except perhaps to balance the equities between the conflicting claims of the litigating parties by "ironing out the creases" in a cause or matter before it. Indeed this Court is not a court of restricted jurisdiction of only dispute settling. It is well recognised and established that this Court has always been a law maker and its role travels beyond merely dispute settling. It is a "problem solver in the nebulous areas". (See. K. Veeraswami v. Union of India : 1991 (3) SCC 655, but the substantive statutory provisions dealing with the subject matter of a given case, cannot be altoget ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... those orders. The orders do not disclose any factual details and the relevant provisions under which the accused was charged/convicted and minimum sentence, if any, as available in the Act as well as the period already undergone. In the absence of such details, we are unable to rely on those orders. 19) From the analysis of the above decisions and the concerned provisions with which we are concerned, the following principles emerge: a) When the Court issues notice confining to particular aspect/sentence, arguments will be heard only to that extent unless some extraordinary circumstance/material is shown to the Court for arguing the matter on all aspects. b) Long delay in disposal of appeal or any other factor may not be a ground for reduction of sentence, particularly, when the statute prescribes minimum sentence. In other cases where no such minimum sentence is prescribed, it is open to the Court to consider the delay and its effect and the ultimate decision. c) In a case of corruption by public servant, quantum of amount is immaterial. Ultimately it depends upon the conduct of the delinquent and the proof regarding demand and acceptance established by the prosecution. ..... 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