In Brief
A government treasury officer was convicted of demanding and accepting a Rs.2,000 bribe from a school official in exchange for processing a bill for leave encashment. The High Court acquitted him, reasoning that he had already passed the bill before the trap date, leaving no work pending. The Supreme Court reversed the acquittal, holding that demand and acceptance of illegal gratification—proved through taped conversation, eyewitness testimony, and recovery of marked currency—constitute the offence regardless of whether work remains pending. Once demand and acceptance are established beyond doubt, a legal presumption of corrupt intent arises under the Prevention of Corruption Act, which the accused failed to rebut with credible evidence. The court restored the conviction and sentence.
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