The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the criminal proceedings against former Union Minister C K Jaffer Sharief in a corruption case, which alleged that he had misused his official position by taking four of his staff members to London along with him, while he went abroad for medical treatment in 1995.
A Bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi which dismissed the case, also set aside the judgment of the Delhi High Court and of the trial court.
Justice Gogoi, who wrote the judgment,said that there was no evidence against Sharief to establish that he had got pecuniary advantage by taking his staff members to the UK.
It was on June 3, 1998 that an FIR was filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act when Sharief was the Railway Minister.
According to the prosecution, he had through dishonest means made the Managing Directors of RITES (Rail India Technical & Economics Service Ltd) and RITES (Rail India Technical & Economics Service Ltd) to approve the overseas travel of B N Nagesh, the then Additional PS to the Railway Minister, S M Mastan and Murlidharan — stenos in the Railway Cell and Samaullah, domestic help of Sharief.
Justice Gogoi’s judgment said, “A bare reading of the provisions of the Act shows that the offence is committed if a public servant obtains any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage by corrupt or illegal means, by abusing his position as a public servant or without public interest.
“The appellant besides working as the Railway Minister, was the head of the two public sector undertakings at the relevant time. It also appears that while in London the four persons had assisted the appellant in performing certain tasks connected with the discharge of duties as a minister. It is difficult to visualise as to how the appellant can be construed to have adopted corrupt or illegal means or to have abused his position as a public servant to obtain any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage,” the court observed.
