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“It is well settled that for successful working of democracy, it is essential that public revenues are not defrauded and the public servants do not indulge in corruption”: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently refused to quash criminal proceedings against a government official allegedly involved in a more than two decades old multi-crore fraud.

Allegedly, certain financial budget was allotted to Directorate, Ayurvedic Evam Unani Services for the Financial Years 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93, however, the amount expended exceeded the amount allotted. It was later revealed that an embezzlement of 17.27 crores had occurred.

Holding accused Durga Datt Tripathi’s plea under section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, devoid of merit, the bench of Justice Rajiv Gupta said “The abuse of public office for private gain has grown in scope and scale and hit the nation badly.”

Further, underlining the ill-effects of corruption over successful working of a democracy, court added that “it is well settled that for successful working of democracy, it is essential that public revenues are not defrauded and the public servants do not indulge in corruption and if they do, allegations of corruption are inquired into fairly and properly and those, who are guilty, are brought to book.”

Essentially, seeking court’ intervention, Tripathi’s counsel had asserted that though the FIR in this case was lodged in the year 1997, sanction for prosecution was granted on June 19, 2018 after considerable delay of more than 20 years. Therefore, she had argued that the proceedings against Tripathi should have been quashed as Tripathi had already suffered because of protracted legal proceedings.

However, vehemently opposing this argument, the Additional Government Advocate had stated that embezzlement of a huge amount had taken place, therefore, the entire proceedings could not be quashed and the court was not required to hold a mini-trial at the present stage.

He had argued that “from the allegations made in the FIR and the material collected during the course of investigation, prime facie offence was clearly made out against Tripathi and it is trite law that in matter of corruption, no such latitude can be given.”

Considering the rival submissions, Court concluded that it was not a fit case to quash the criminal proceedings and accordingly dismissed Tripathi’s plea.

Case Title: Durga Datt Tripathi v. State of U.P. and Another