New Delhi, Dec. 28: The Supreme Court has ruled that an informer cannot claim reward as a matter of legal right, which is “granted on the absolute discretion of the authority competent”.

“The reward is an ex gratia payment, subject to the guidelines, and granted on the absolute discretion of the authority competent,” ruled the division bench of Justices S. Rajendra Babu and G.P. Mathur on December 18. “No one can claim the reward as a matter of right,” it added.

An informer is any citizen who has knowledge of offences such as tax violations or customs-duty evasion and passes it on to the authorities.

Under a government scheme formulated in 1985, a competent authority (such as tax or customs department) grants awards to such citizens in a certain proportion based on the recovery made from the party violating the law. So there is no fixed scale.

But C. Krishna Reddy had claimed Rs 1.71 crore from the customs and the central excise department for providing information that helped recover duty from a party.

After Madras High Court ordered the grant of the reward to Reddy, the Centre appealed to the apex court. The court said: “The high court, in writ jurisdiction, cannot examine or weigh the various factors which have to be taken into consideration while deciding a claim regarding grant of reward.

“These are matters exclusively within the domain of the authorities of the department as they can weigh and examine the usefulness or otherwise of the information given by the informer.”

The judges also observed: “If the grant of reward cannot be claimed as a matter of right, it is not understandable as to how a writ of mandamus can be issued commanding the government to give a particular amount by way of reward.

“To compel the authorities to do something, to compel performance of public duties prescribed by statute, it must be shown that there is a statute which imposes a legal duty and the aggrieved party has a legal right under the statute to enforce its performance.”

There is no law or statute, except the 1985 scheme, to guide cases of rewards for information leading to recovery of monies due to the government, the bench emphasised. The scheme was formulated, particularly by the finance ministry, when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister as huge duty and tax evasions were being reported.