Greed for wealth making graft to grow like cancer: Supreme Court

New Delhi: Unsatiated greed for wealth has facilitated corruption to develop like cancer and the constitutional courts owe a duty to the people of the country to show zero tolerance to corruption and come down heavily against the perpetrators of the crime, the Supreme Court has said.

The top court said corruption is a prominent hurdle in achieving "preambular promise" of the Constitution to secure social justice for the people of India by striving to achieve equal distribution of wealth.

A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta made the observations while setting aside an order of the Chhattisgarh High Court which had quashed the FIR registered against the state's former principal secretary Aman Singh and his wife for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.

"Though it is the preambular promise of the Constitution to secure social justice for the people of India by striving to achieve equal distribution of wealth, it is yet a distant dream. If not the main, one of the more prominent hurdles to achieving progress in this field is undoubted 'corruption'.

"Corruption is a malaise, the presence of which is all-pervading in every walk of life. It is not now limited to the spheres of activities of governance; regrettably, responsible citizens say it has become a way of one's life," the bench said.

The top court said it is a matter of disgrace for the entire community that there is a steady decline in pursuing the lofty ideals which the founding fathers of our Constitution had in mind and degradation of moral values in society is rapidly on the rise.

"Not much debate is required to trace the root of corruption. 'Greed', regarded in Hinduism as one of the seven sins, has been overpowering in its impact. In fact, unsatiated greed for wealth has facilitated corruption to develop like cancer.

"If the corrupt succeed in duping the law enforcers, their success erodes even the fear of getting caught. They tend to bask under a hubris that rules and regulations are for humbler mortals and not them. To get caught, for them, is a sin," it said.

Noting that an outbreak of scams is commonly noticed, the bench said what is more distressing is the investigations or inquiries that follow.