The Supreme Court decision awarding former Kerala power minister R. Balakrishnan Pillai one year’s rigorous imprisonment in a graft case has come at a very crucial stage — when the country is facing scams like those involving 2G spectrum allocation, the CWG and the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society — as the verdict has laid down stringent tests to evaluate decisions of the executive authority and the “misuse of power” by them in the allocation of national resources.
Describing corruption as a “cancer” affecting governance, the Supreme Court has meticulously analysed the decision-making process followed by Pillai in awarding a contract for the construction of a channel for the Idamalayar hydro project in 1982 to a private company by making last-minute changes in the tender process.
The verdict also assumes significance for the reason that Pillai is the first minister to be convicted and sentenced by the top court in a graft case.
The top court indicted Pillai for violating laid-down guidelines regarding awarding of contracts in a bid to favour the firm of his friend, K.P. Poulose, despite it quoting an “exorbitant” rate. “The tendering process was interrupted on several occasions by the state electricity board by cancelling it and ordering re-tenders and extending the period of validity more than once,” the apex court held, citing evidence of how Pillai entered into a criminal conspiracy with Poulose and his close associate, Sajeev.
“The basic stand of the prosecution is that accused No. 1 (Pillai) entered into a criminal conspiracy to award the contract involving heavy financial gains to Poulose and the abuse of power by certain officials enabled the conspirators to earn pecuniary advantage of `2.39 crore in addition to the financial loss to the state electricity board,” said the bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan, which gave the important verdict.
The findings on the last-minute changes in policy guidelines by a minister is being seen by legal experts as “major commentary” on “misuse of power” by the executive authority, which is akin to the allegations in the 2G, CWG and Adarsh scams. The most significant aspect of the verdict is that the top court has placed such changes in policy guidelines in the category of “criminal conspiracy”.
The top court said, “Documents produced and marked by the prosecution concluded that there is sufficient evidence for finding that a criminal conspiracy was hatched at the instance of accused-1 (Pillai) and P.K. Sajeev, his close associate and political ally.”
As close association between conspirators is the basic ingredient of a criminal conspiracy, the top court found that the trial judge had clearly “established” a close relationship and friendship between Pillai, Sajeev and Poulose. In fact, Sajeev played the crucial role of acting as a bridge between Pillai and Poulose.
To achieve the “illegal object” of including the name of Poulose in the list of bidders despite his firm quoting an exorbitant rate, a “pre-qualification system was introduced by the power board vide an order dated September 24, 1981” at the last moment, virtually as part of furthering the conspiracy, the top court concluded.