Judge PH Mali last week acquitted Chandrakant Pugaonkar, corporator from Mahalaxmi, of charges of demanding and accepting illegal gratification of Rs4,000. The court held that the prosecution was misconceived and fell beyond the scope of the PCA.
“An elected officer, including MPs and MLAs, do not fall within the ambit of the PCA”, said Pugaonkar’s advocate M Unnikrishnan. “To be prosecuted for corruption under the PCA, the officer must be appointed to his post, not elected. There is a Supreme Court judgment saying so,” he added.
“We will certainly appeal against this conviction,” said prosecutor Meena Vaiude while explaining that there was an appeal pending before the Bombay High Court in a similar but earlier case against another corporator. “There is another similar case coming up.
Until the High Court decides the issue, the corporators are safe from prosecution for corruption under the PCA. This does not bode well for the civic administration,” said Vaiude.
Vaiude explained that there is an intrinsic problem with prosecuting elected representatives under the Act. The prosecution must be sanctioned “by the appointing authority”. “In the case of an elected office there is no authority that either appoints him or dismisses him. Unless something is done soon to plug this lacunae, an elected representative can continue to be corrupt with impunity,” said Vaiude.
Senior lawyer Shyam Keswani said: “The state can resort to the provisions of the Indian Penal Code to prosecute elected representatives.”