Cash-for-job scam: SC restores criminal complaint against TN Minister Senthil Balaji [ReadOrder]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that refund of money or a compromise between bribe giver and taker was no ground to quash a graft case as corruption by a public servant is an offence against the state and the society at large.

A bench of Justices S A Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian restored a criminal complaint against V Senthil Balaji, currently the electricity minister in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, in a cash-for-job scam during his tenure as Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015.

"It is needless to point out that corruption by a public servant is an offence against the State and the society at large. The court cannot deal with cases involving abuse of official position and adoption of corrupt practices, like suits for specific performance, where the refund of the money paid may also satisfy the agreement holder," the bench said.

The bench further held that the High Court was completely in error in quashing the criminal complaint.

The court said the High Court ought not to have quashed the criminal proceedings on the basis of the compromise.

"Persons who have adopted corrupt practices to secure employment in the Transport Corporation fall under two categories namely, (i)  those who paid money and got orders of appointment; and (ii) those who paid money but failed to secure employment. If persons belonging to the 2nd category are allowed to settle their dispute by taking refund of money, the same would affix a seal of approval on the appointment of persons belonging to the 1st category," the bench said.

The top court set aside the Madras High Court order that quashed the proceedings against Balaji and others in connection with the scam.

The bench said: We do not know how the High Court could have stayed prosecution of persons under the PC Act, especially in matters of this nature. As a matter of fact, the State ought to have undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the entire scam, without allowing the accused to fish out one case as if it was a private money dispute.

The judgement came on plea against the high court order, which quashed the proceedings against Balaji and others on the grounds that alleged victims of the recruitment scam had arrived at a settlement. It was claimed before the high court that the victims have been repaid and the issue has been settled.

We are constrained to say that even a novice in criminal law would not have left the offences under the PC Act, out of the final report. The attempt of the investigating officer appears to be of one, willing to strike but afraid to wound (the opposite of what Alexander Pope wrote in Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot), the bench said.

In 2018, a complaint was filed against the then transport minister and others for taking bribes from job aspirants to the post of driver and conductor on the false promise of appointment to the Metro Transport Corporation (MTC).

The top court said, "The impugned order of the High Court is wholly unsustainable. Therefore, the appeals are allowed and the order of the High Court is set aside. The criminal complaint is restored to file."

The court directed the investigating officer to proceed under Section 173(8) of the Code to file a further report.

Additionally/alternatively, the Special Court, where the matter is pending, shall exercise power under Section 216 of the CrPC, if there is any reluctance on the part of the State or the investigating officer, the bench added.

Senior advocates Siddharth Bhatnagar and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, and advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the appellants. Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi, Mukul Rohatgi, C A Sundaram and Manan Kumar Mishra represented the accused respondents.

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