B.S. GORAYA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in the present writ petition is to the vires of Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short 'the Act'), inter-alia, on the ground that the same is violative of Article 20(1) of the Constitution of India, whereby a citizen is protected against ex-post facto penal Statutes.

(2.) A crime report No. 15 dated 6.8.1990 was recorded by the Delhi Police Establishment (Chandigarh Branch) under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(e) of the Act. It is asserted by the petitioner that the registration of the case and the filing of the report resulted in serious penal consequences and the petitioner, who was then serving as a Colonel, was dismissed from service on 17.1.1993, though such order has been set aside in separate proceedings by this Court.

(3.) It is asserted that the allegations in the FIR and the subsequent charge-sheet are to the effect that the petitioner has been found to be in possession of pecuniary resources and the properties disproportionate to his known sources of income but such charges are leveled on the basis of the provisions of the Act though, in terms of the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, it could not said that the petitioner has committed any offence. Thus it is alleged that the petitioner is being prosecuted for an offence which was not an offence on the date of its commission, therefore, the prosecution launched against the petitioner violates the protection given to the citizens under Article 20 of the Constitution.