LAWS(SC)-1996-10-181

SHIVSAGAR TIWARI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

Decided On October 11, 1996
Shivsagar Tiwari Appellant
V/S
UNION OF INDIA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Edmund Burke stated as early as 1777: "among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist. " In 1778, he observed: "an arbitrary system indeed must always be a corrupt one. There never was a man who thought he had no law but his own will, who did not soon find that he had no end but his own profit. "

(2.) According to Francis Beaumount (1584-1616 corruption is a tree, whose branches are of an unmeasurable length, they spread everywhere, and the dew that drops from thence, hath infected some chairs and stools of authority.

(3.) In the Encyclopaedia of Democracy by Seymour Martin Lipset, Vol. 1, p. 310, in the Ch. 'corruption', it is stated that corruption is an abuse of public resources for private gain. It is known that bribes open the way for access to the State for those who are willing to pay and can afford to pay. The situation leaves non-corrupt citizen with the belief that one counts only if one has the right personal contact with those who hold power and also allow persons with money power to get things done to their advantage through backdoor.