ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on Saturday observed that the foundations of state would be undermined if bribery is not controlled.
He said that mitigating the punishment awarded in bribery cases is tantamount to reinforcing the bribery, adding that courts should avoid mitigation in bribery-related cases.
Justice Khan made these observations in his four-page judgement, written in Urdu, over a bribery-related case wherein Patwari Muhammad Akram was involved. The judge also said that awarding a benefit of mitigation is not a legal action.
“Rampant bribery has been wide spreading with great bang in the society and undermining the foundations of state so the mitigation in the punishments awarded in bribe-related cases tantamount to reinforcing it and the courts must avoid such mitigation,” stated the top court’s order. The judgement was passed after two-member bench comprising of Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Khan heard the case, in which orders of the Lahore High Court Bahawalpur bench were challenged.
Sajid Mehmood approached Patwari Muhammad Akram for transfer of 30 kanals of agricultural land to his wife and heirs. The patwari demanded Rs 0.14 million bribe, which Mehmood paid.
However, when the patwari asked for more Mehmood filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Department following which a case was registered against the officer.
Subsequently, the case landed in the LHC Bahawalpur bench and the court mitigated the patwari’s punishment.
“Though the high court, by mitigating the punishment while keeping in view the preceding phases of imprisonment, had acquitted the appellant of the instant case, which in our opinion is not a legal measure,” the judgement read.
The judgement added that stringent punishment, which is also allowed in the law, to the perpetrators involved in bribery charges should be given, adding that it is the only solution to stop the bribe; therefore, any court should completely avoid mitigation of the punishments without placing the judicious reason.
“We also see it necessary to observe here that different provincial governments spent millions of rupees, of public tax, on different departments to computerize the entire system for avoiding the common practices of bribe,” the judgment stated adding that had there been honest officers in departments such episodes would not have happened.
“Therefore, it is likely that handling such culprits lightly would stigmatize the justice and judiciary system,” the judge observed.