A private person can be tried by a special court under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act even in the absence of any government servant as accused in the case.
"The scheme of the PC Act makes it quite clear that even a private person, who is involved in an offence mentioned in Section 3(1) of the PC Act, is required to be tried only by a Special Judge and by no other court. Moreover, it is not necessary that in every offence under the PC Act, a public servant must necessarily be an accused," a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan said.
The bench said the existence of a public servant for facing the trial before the special court is not a must and even in his absence, private persons can be tried for offences under PCA as well as non-PC offences.
"We, therefore, make it clear that it is not the law that only along with the junction of a public servant in array of parties, the Special Judge can proceed against private persons who have committed offences punishable under PC Act," it said.
The bench set aside the Delhi High Court verdict which had held that on the death of a public servant, the offences under the PC Act cannot be proceeded with.
It passed the order on an appeal filed by CBI challenging the HC order in a corruption case.
