JUDGMENT

Thomas, J.-Can a legal presumption be based on a factual presumption? The latter is discretionary whereas the former is compulsory. Such a question arose in this appeal and in view of the importance of the issue a two-Judge Bench has referred this case to be heard by a larger bench. The legal presumption envisaged in Section 20 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (for short "the Act") is that no proof of certain fact the court "shall presume" certain other fact. When there is no direct evidence for establishing the primary fact the court has to depend upon the process of inference drawn from other facts to reach the said primary fact. The crux of the question involved, therefore, is whether an inference thus made could be used as a premise for the compulsory presumption envisaged in Section 20 of the Act.

2. The aforesaid question arose from the following assortment of facts. Appellant was manager of a Milk Chilling Centre attached to Andhra Pradesh Dairy Development Co-operative Federation. He is alleged to have received bribe money of Rs. 500/- from a milk-transporting contractor (PW1-Satya Prasad). He was caught red handed on 20.4.1989 in a trap arranged by the offic