Can Corruption be prevented?

Did you forget Anna Hazare and his fight against corruption which brought fresh air in the polluted political stage of India? Every Political party in India saw to it that the movement died prematurely otherwise, it would grow to monstrous proportions to devour them. But the movement is still evergreen as the People’s tirade against the corrupt polity! Hon’ble Shri Santhosh Hegde, Retd Judge of the Supreme Court, eminent jurist, a leading Advocate, erudite scholar of law, and son of Shri K S Hegde, who was one of the Judges superseded by Mrs Indira Gandhi on 25 April 1973 and appointed Hon’ble Shri Ajit Nath Rai, as Chief Justice of India and Shri KS Hedge (father) chose to resign. He became Speaker of the Lok Sabha during 1977-80. Shri Santhosh Hegde was the Lokayukta of Karnataka who took up some sensational corruption cases. His Report about sequence of corrupt cases included that of Shri B S Yedurappa, who was the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. In a massive report submitted to Governor H R Bharadwaj, Shri Santhosh Hegde, named the BSY as a guilty party having favoured South West Mining Ltd for which he is supposed to have made pecuniary gain through the Education Trust founded by his immediate family and selling own lands to the mining company far higher than the market price. This, the Lokayukta concluded prima facie proved the nexus, and quid pro quo for granting the mining deal in lieu of payment of money which has been received by the kith and kin of the former Chief Minister. This, the Hon’ be Lokayuta concluded was tantamount to misuse of office, hence recommended criminal proceedings against Yedurappa under the Prevention of Coruption Act. The Governor, to whom the Report was submitted, gave permission for prosecution of BSY under PCAct. Shri Yedurappa, filed a writ in the High Court stating that the First Information Report filed against him in the Lokayukta Court was faulty, as it was based on Governor’s sanction which was linked to the Lokayukta’s Report submitted to the Governor by Hon’ble Shri Santhosh Hegde, a legal luminary, who had gone elaborately on the sum and substance of the allegation and collected materials which should have had legal scrutiny. The High Court quashed the FIR, and held the sanction of Governor untenable and unlawful and the report which failed to seek the response of the then Chief Minister Shri Yedurappa. Hence it is tainted with constitutional inadequacy, and principles of natural justice were a casualty. Justice Santhosh Hegde should have known better; a report of Lokayukta, judicial body, should have no bias. Yet, the Report was quashed. Now, the question, the civil society raised on the corruption at high places, who is responsible for action being vitiated? Another Retired Judge of the Supreme Court, Fathima Beevi, appointed Smt Jayalalitha as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu when she was the Governor. Supreme Court held that her decision to appoint Smt Jayalalitha did not have constitutional sanction. Now, did the former Judges of the Supreme Court err? All noise about the involvement of B S Yedurappa in the mining scam based on the report of Lokayukta now remains quashed by the High Court of Karnataka which has appeal jurisdiction. Now, will an appeal be preferred in the Supreme Court? The Karnataka State Government may not do so. Can some private individual under the Public Interest Litigation route file a petition in the Supreme Court against the divisional bench’s order exonerating Yedurappa on technical grounds? Can one assume locus standii as a Public citizen, as did Shri V S Achuthanadan in the Balakrishna Pillai case when state failed to prefer an appeal against the High Court order exonerating him, and the Supreme Court held that VS Achuthanadan had the locus standii to file the appeal as a citizen!