SC says greed for wealth facilitates corruption to develop like cancer
New Delhi: In a setback to Aman Kumar Singh, principal secretary to the erstwhile BJP chief minister Raman Singh, the Supreme Court has set aside the Chhattisgarh High Court order quashing an FIR against him and his wife for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income, saying the “unsatiated greed for wealth has facilitated corruption to develop like cancer”.
The top court, while paving the way for prosecution of Singh and his wife Yasmeen Singh, came down heavily on those indulging in corruption and said constitutional courts owed a duty to the people of the country to show zero tolerance to such cases.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta said corruption is a prominent hurdle in achieving “preambular promise” of the Constitution to secure social justice to the people of India by striving to achieve equal distribution of wealth.
The Chhattisgarh High Court had earlier quashed the FIR registered against Singh and his wife for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets observing that the registration of the case was the “abuse” of the process of law and that the allegations were prima facie based upon probabilities.
Singh, a former Indian Revenue Service Officer, was a powerful bureaucrat in the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh and was working as the principal secretary to the chief minister.
He later joined the Adani group in November 2022 as the Corporate Brand Custodian and Corporate Affairs head, and when Adani took control of NDTV, Singh was one of the directors the Adani group appointed on the board of the news broadcaster.
Reversing the high court judgement, the top court said, “Though it is the preambular promise of the Constitution to secure social justice to the people of India by striving to achieve equal distribution of wealth, it is yet a distant dream. If not the main, one of the more prominent hurdles for achieving progress in this field is undoubtedly ‘corruption’.
“Corruption is a malaise, the presence of which is all pervading in every walk of life. It is not now limited to the spheres of activities of governance; regrettably, responsible citizens say it has become a way of one’s life,” the bench said.
The court said it is a matter of disgrace for the community that there is a steady decline in pursuing the lofty ideals which the founding fathers of our Constitution had in mind and degradation of moral values in society is rapidly on the rise.
“Not much debate is required to trace the root of corruption. ‘Greed’, regarded in Hinduism as one of the seven sins, has been overpowering in its impact. In fact, unsatiated greed for wealth has facilitated corruption to develop like cancer.
“If the corrupt succeed in duping the law enforcers, their success erodes even the fear of getting caught. They tend to bask under a hubris that rules and regulations are for humbler mortals and not them. To get caught, for them, is a sin,” it said.
Noting that outbreak of scams is commonly noticed, the bench said what is more distressing is the investigations or inquiries that follow.
