The Supreme Court on Friday said it can't direct the Parliament to pass a law for life term in graft cases as for every bribe-taker, there was always a bribe giver.
The court declined to consider a PIL for directions to confiscate 'Benami' properties and disproportionate assets in cases of corruption and award life term to offenders.
A bench presided over by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, "Personally, I feel, we in society should change our thinking. For every person taking money, there is a person distributing money."
The court asked petitioner, BJP leader and advocate A K Upadhyay to withdraw his PIL and approach the Law Commission with his idea to punish the corrupt and the criminal by confiscating their 100% assets and hand them out life term.
The bench, also comprising Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy said that Upadhyay was trying for a "Utopian situation".
The court finally allowed senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayana to withdraw the plea. It also said it cannot issue a mandamus to Parliament to pass a law in this regard.
In his plea, Upadhyay claimed due to weak and ineffective anti-corruption laws, India has never been ranked even among the top 50 in the Corruption Perception Index.
He also contended the Centre has not strengthened the laws to weed-out the menace of corruption, which brazenly offended rule of law as well as the right to life liberty dignity guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
(Published 11 December 2020, 10:29 IST)
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