Patna, Jan. 3: Patna High Court today reserved its judgment on a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Bihar Special Court Act 2009 which empowers the state government to confiscate the assets of public servants who have amassed property beyond their known source of income.

A division bench comprising Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Ravi Ranjan reserved the order after hearing arguments of both the petitioner and the defendant.

The Act, which has been enacted by the Nitish government to nail erring public servants, is under legal scrutiny because some government officials, including suspended IAS officer and former minor irrigation secretary S.S. Verma, former director-general of police (DGP) Narain Mishra, former state drug controller Y.K. Jaiswal and former Raj Bhasha director Dhruv Narain Choudhary, have moved the court challenging the government’s decision.

While defending the act, the state government submitted that it was not confiscating the property. Rather, it was a move to take back the ill-gotten wealth acquired by public servants who fail to justify their source of income.

The state’s advocate-general contended that the Act was valid as a similar Act titled Orissa Special Courts Act was upheld by the Orissa High Court with a similar intention to curb corruption and punish the offenders.

Confiscation of assets by way of interim arrangement till the conviction was the only way to protect the ill-gotten assets, which ultimately belonged to the government, was the argument of the defendants.

The government’s counsel made it clear that the assets would be returned with a five per cent interest if it was found that the wealth earned by public servants was not by illegal means.

The counsel for petitioner Abhinav Srivastava submitted that the law enacted by the state government to confiscate the property of public servants was in complete violation of the constitutional scheme.

The special vigilance unit and the anti-corruption wing of the state government have started the process of confiscation of disproportionate assets of three senior government officials, including one officer each of the IAS and IPS.