A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday observed that the government should evolve a clear policy on segregating cases to be prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act and to be dealt with by the Vigilance Tribunal. The Bench of Justice A. Hariprasad and Justice N. Anil Kumar, while dismissing a challenge against the constitution of the Vigilance Department, observed that Rule 4 of the Vigilance Tribunal Rules did not empower the State government to pick and choose arbitrarily some corruption cases involving government officials to be inquired into by the Vigilance Tribunal and some other cases to be prosecuted before the Court of Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge(Vigilance Court) under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Corruption cases
The Bench made the observations while disposing of a petition filed by K. Karunanidhi from Thiruvananthapuram and a village officer challenging the corruption cases registered against them by the Vigilance Department.
When the petition came up for hearing, senior government pleader Suman Chakravarthy submitted that the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) was nothing but a unit or branch of the police force assigned with the task of combating corruption and officials’ misconduct.
