Justice S M Subramaniam offered the direction while expressing displeasure over the Inspector General of Registration not initiating any action against officials responsible for patent illegalities committed while determining the market value in the present case. “When the actual market value of the agricultural land in the surrounding locality remained Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh per acre and the agreement for a sale between the parties in the present case was Rs 76 lakh per acre, it is not known, on what basis the Special Deputy Collector (Stamps), determined the market value as Rs 12 lakh. The fairness adopted is explicitly missing in the present case,” the court said. 

However, on noting that scientific ways of concealing the ill-gotten money is being developed across the nation, Justice Subramaniam sought the government to identify the clever way of benami transactions by executives. He also held that a mere verification of assets declared by government employees is insufficient and the straight jacket formula by Vigilance and Anti-Corruption and other government departments is insufficient to tackle the corrupt practices. 

“Thus, every department must have ‘anti-corruption special cells’ so as to make consistent assessments of the executives for the purpose of improving the efficiency level in the public administration, which is mandatory under the Constitution,” Justice Subramaniam said.