Is giving bribe a criminal activity?

 Background

The appellant wanted to know whether a case has been registered against a person caught giving bribe to a government employee, based on her request. She also wanted to know the reason if no case has been registered against the said person. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided the sought information. Dissatisfied with the reply, the appellant filed the first appeal, which was dismissed by the First Appellate Authority (FAA) pointing out that the applicant could not point out a single infirmity in the reply of the PIO except stressing that action should have been taken against the person for alleged bribe giving.

View of CIC

During the hearing the appellant wanted to know whether taking bribe and giving bribe are criminal activities or not, especially, when the bribe giver admits in writing that he has given a bribe. She wanted to know why no action was taken against the bribe giver, when on the other hand an action was taken against the bribe taker (appellant’s husband). The respondent submitted that in almost all the cases the person who admits to having given bribe is pressurised into saying so and that the bribe giver almost always is forced to give the bribe and that in the instant case too the same thing has happened . According to the respondent, no case was registered against the bribe giver as per section 24 of the POC Act and since the instant case was pending before the session’s court in Delhi, the information was not supplied. The appellant once again wanted the PIO to provide clarifications against the following points: i) whether giving bribe and receiving bribe, are criminal activities or only receiving bribe is considered as crime. ii) The rule by which no FIR can be lodged against a person who admits to having given bribe. The Commission directed the PIO to provide the required clarification to the appellant, as available on record along with the relevant portion of the POC Act.

Citation: Smt. Usha Pahariya Aasiwal v. Directorate of Vigilance in File No. CIC/AD/A/2012/000614