The Supreme Court on Friday said it can't direct the Parliament to pass a law for life term in graft cases as for every bribe-taker, there was always a bribe giver.
The court declined to consider a PIL for directions to confiscate 'Benami' properties and disproportionate assets in cases of corruption and award life term to offenders.
A bench presided over by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, "Personally, I feel, we in society should change our thinking. For every person taking money, there is a person distributing money."
The court asked petitioner, BJP leader and advocate A K Upadhyay to withdraw his PIL and approach the Law Commission with his idea to punish the corrupt and the criminal by confiscating their 100% assets and hand them out life term.
The bench, also comprising Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy said that Upadhyay was trying for a "Utopian situation".
The court finally allowed senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayana to withdraw the plea. It also said it cannot issue a mandamus to Parliament to pass a law in this regard.
In his plea, Upadhyay claimed due to weak and ineffective anti-corruption laws, India has never been ranked even among the top 50 in the Corruption Perception Index.
He also contended the Centre has not strengthened the laws to weed-out the menace of corruption, which brazenly offended rule of law as well as the right to life liberty dignity guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.