The court ruled that the office bearers of a private cricket association may be considered 'public servants' under the Prevention of Corruption Act if they perform public duties, emphasizing the accountability required under public law.

JUDGMENT :

A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.

The vexed question that we are called upon to answer in these writ appeals is, whether the office bearers of the Kerala Cricket Association, a society registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act , affiliated to, and functioning under the administrative control of, the Board for Control of Cricket in India [BCCI], can be treated as “public servants” for the purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 ?

The Background:

2. The Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 [hereinafter referred to as the “PC Act”] is a social welfare legislation that was enacted with the aim of removing corruption from public service. At the time of its enactment, it replaced the earlier legislative regime constituted by the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1947, as supplemented by the since omitted Sections 161 to 165(a) of the Indian Penal Code [hereinafter referred to as the “IPC”], and was envisaged to be a complete code in relation to tackling of corruption in public service.

3. Section 2 (c) of the PC Act defines a “public servant” to mean, inter alia, “any person who holds an office by virtue of which he is authorised or required to perform a public duty” [ Section 2 (c)(viii)] as also “any person who is an office-bearer or an employee of an educational, scientific, social, cultural or other institution, in whatever manner established, receiving or having received any financial assistance from the Central Government or any State Government, or local or other public authority” [ Section 2 (c)(xii)]. Explanations 1 and 2 to Section 2 (c) are also relevant and they read as under:

Explanation 1- Persons falling under any of the above sub-clauses are public servants, whether appointed by the Government or not.

Explanation 2- Wherever the words “public servant” occur, they shall be understood of every person who is in actual possession of the situation of a public servant, whatever legal defect there may be in his right to hold that situation.

“Public duty” is defined in Section 2 (b) of the PC Act as meaning “a duty in the discharge of which the State, the public or the community at large has an interest.” An Explanation to the said sub-section clarifies that the term “State” includes a corporation established by or under a Central, Provincial or State Act, or an authority or a body owned or controlled or aided by the Government or a Government company as defined in Section 617 of the Companies Act , 1956.

4. It would appear that complaints were filed by certain persons before the Courts of the Enquiry Commissioner & Special Judge at Thrissur and Kottayam alleging corruption by the office bearers of the Kerala Cricket Association in the purchase of land in Edakochi at Ernakulam and Manakkad Village in Thodupuzha Taluk for constructing cricket stadiums of International Standards. When the courts aforementioned directed a preliminary enquiry to be conducted in the matters before them, the accused office bearers of the Kerala Cricket Association impugned the orders of the Special Courts before this Court through writ petitions that inter alia sought for a declaration that the petitioners office bearers of the Kerala Cricket Association would not come within the purview of the PC Act, 1988 and a consequent writ of certiorari to quash the orders passed by the Special Courts.

The impugned judgment:

5. The learned Single Judge, by the judgment impugned in these appeals, allowed the writ petitions and found that the office bearers of th