M.F. SALDANHA, J.:---This criminal appeal, which has been preferred by a senior Superintendent of Customs, raises certain significant issues with regard to the law relating to corruption trials. Having regard to the fact that the questions were debated with a considerable amount of vigour and that the points canvassed are ones of far-reaching consequence to the appellant-accused in this case, and to a large number of similarly situated public servants who are faced with proceedings of this type, it is necessary to deal with those aspects with some amount of elaborateness. The present appellant, who started his career almost half a century back in 1948 under the then Portuguese regime, worked with the Customs Department at Bombay from 1954. Sometime towards the end of the year 1985, the Central Bureau of Investigation (hereinafter referred to as "the C.B.I. Authorities") raided his house and seized various amounts of jewellery, documents, etc. and thereafter continued with the investigations. The appellant, Shri N.P. Lotlikar, was at that stage of his career a Superintendent of Customs and was relatively close to retirement.

2. As inevitably happens, the C.B.I. Authorities fr