24. On a combined reading of Paragraphs 10 and 11 of Part II and Paragraph 129 of Part XV of the Vigilance Manual, this Court is of the opinion that merely forwarding the petitions to Head of the Department concerned is not the correct procedure to be followed as per the Vigilance Manual. On receipt of any petition by the Vigilance Authorities, they have to conduct a preliminary enquiry as per Paragraph 10(2) before forwarding the complaints to the Heads of the Department and forwarding the complaints to the Heads of the Department is absolutely unnecessary with reference to Paragraph 129 of Part XV of the Vigilance Manual. Even in the absence of complaints, it is the mandatory duty on the part of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Department to create sources for gathering good intelligence in anti-corruption works and based on such intelligence, they have to initiate all appropriate actions, which all are contemplated under the Manual. More so, the Detachment of the Directorate of Vigilance Anti-Corruption is the Police Station under the Code of Criminal Procedure. Therefore, even in cases there is no complaint and the corruption is collusive in nature, then the bribe-giver and receiver should be prosecuted under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Curiously, this Court has not informed about any case, where the bribe-giver is prosecuted. When the Courts are lamenting about rampant corruptions in Government Departments, the Vigilance Department is not improving their manner of investigations and cracking down the corrupt activities in Government Departments. Contrarily, they are conducting checks here and there and registering very few number of cases, which is not in commensuration with the gravity of the corruption allegations in public domain. Therefore, the constitutional obligations / requirements in this regard are not met with. In order to achieve the social justice and equality enunciated under the Constitution of India, the Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption plays a pivotal role as corruption activities are not only anti-social and anti-national, but it prevents the development activities of our great Nation, which is more detrimental to the interest of public at large and would create an impact on vibrant democracy.
