Supreme Court Upholds Karnataka High Court Ruling on Preliminary Enquiry in Corruption Cases
The Supreme Court has upheld a Karnataka High Court judgment that sustained the registration of a corruption case without insisting on a mandatory preliminary enquiry in every instance. The ruling reinforces the principle that where credible material already discloses the commission of a cognizable offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, an FIR can be registered without first conducting a separate preliminary enquiry.
The case arose from a challenge to proceedings initiated by the Karnataka Lokayukta Police against a public servant accused of possessing disproportionate assets. The respondent contended that the investigation was vitiated because the investigating agency had not undertaken a formal preliminary enquiry before registering the FIR, relying on earlier judicial precedents concerning corruption investigations.
Rejecting the contention, the Supreme Court held that the Prevention of Corruption Act does not make a preliminary enquiry a statutory precondition for registration of an FIR. The Bench observed that although such an enquiry may be desirable in appropriate cases, it is not mandatory where the investigating authority already possesses a detailed source report or other material disclosing a cognizable offence. In such situations, the requirement of a preliminary enquiry can be dispensed with.
The Court found that the Superintendent of Police had acted on a comprehensive source information report detailing the allegations and the material collected before directing registration of the FIR. Since the source report itself provided sufficient basis to initiate criminal proceedings, the absence of a separate preliminary enquiry did not render the investigation illegal. Consequently, the Supreme Court affirmed the legal position adopted by the Karnataka High Court and reiterated that procedural safeguards should not be interpreted in a manner that unnecessarily hampers anti-corruption investigations.
The judgment is expected to have significant implications for corruption probes across the country. Investigating agencies such as Lokayuktas and Anti-Corruption Bureaus can rely on credible source information to register FIRs without being compelled to conduct a formal preliminary enquiry in every case. At the same time, the Court clarified that the legality of an investigation will continue to depend on the existence of objective material indicating the commission of a cognizable offence, thereby balancing the need for effective anti-corruption enforcement with protections against arbitrary investigations.
