Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar, JJ held that a public servant facing charge of criminal misconduct, cannot be comprehended to furnish any explanation in absence of the proof of the allegation of being in possession by himself or through someone else, of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The bench held that the primary burden to bring home the charge of criminal misconduct is indubitably on the prosecution to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the public servant either himself or through anyone else had at any time during the period of his office been in possession of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to his known sources of income and it is only on the discharge of such burden by the prosecution, if he fails to satisfactorily account for the same, he would be in law held guilty of such offence.
In the case where the appellant had challenged the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order convicted him under Section 13(1)(e) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by drawing adverse inference without any conclusive proof, the Court, setting aside his conviction, said that the appellant must be given a benefit of doubt. The Court said that the prosecution, to succeed in a criminal trial, has to pitch its case beyond all reasonable doubt and lodge it in the realm of “must be true” category and not rest contended by leaving it in the domain of “may be true”. [Vasant Rao Guhe v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 893, decided on 09.08.2017]
