PARSHOTTAM ODHAVJIBHAI SOLANKI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since the issues raised in all the captioned petitions are the same and the challenge is also to the selfsame order passed by the Special Judge issuing process against the accused applicants for the offence punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, those were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

(2.) Avarice is a common frailty of mankind and Robert Walpole's famous pronouncement that all men have their price, notwithstanding the unsavoury cynicism that it suggests, is not very far from truth. As far back as more than two centuries ago, it was Burke who cautioned: "Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot last long". In more recent years, Romain Rolland lamented that France fell because there was corruption without indignation. Corruption has, in it, very dangerous potentialities. Corruption, a word of wide connotation has, in respect of almost all the spheres of our day to day life, all the world over, the limited meaning of allowing decisions and actions to be influenced not by the rights or wrongs of a case but by the prospects of monetary gains or other selfish considerations. If even a fraction of what was the vox pupuli about the magnitude of corruption to be true, then it would not be far removed from the truth, that it is the rampant corruption indulged in with impunity by highly placed persons that has led to economic unrest in this country. If one is asked to name one sole factor that effectively arrested the progress of our society to prosperity, undeniably it is corruption. If the society in a developing country faces a menace greater than even the one from the hired assassins to its law and order, then that is from the corrupt elements at the higher echelons of the Government and of the political parties. It is one of the greatest challenges before the humanity. It also lies at the root of several other problems facing the humanity. Corruption can perhaps be described as the biggest factor responsible for failure and near-collapse of legal and moral fibre of the nations and societies the world over. It undermines the freedom of an individual, weakens the rights of the people, threatens the very existence of the democratic institutions, and jeopardises the safety and security of the state. If governance is a matter of joke today, making it a laughing stock and leaving it in a pitiable situation, and if cynicism towards the system is the order of the day, the full blame therefor should perhaps go to corruption. Development is perhaps the biggest victim of corruption, having suffered adversely due to its ill-effects . Hundreds of millions of people are compelled to live below poverty line with no sight of hope. Physical infrastructure development, such as roads, railways, bridges, water supply, electricity, etc., and the human infrastructure such as the education, health, etc., all take a beating, quantitatively and qualitatively, due to the omnipresent corruption. The problem of corruption is more acute in a developing country like India where this villain has fully abducted the development from the lives of people.

(3.) For the sake of convenience, the Special Criminal Application No.207 of 2016 is treated as the lead matter.