Patna, Feb. 23: The high court today put its seal of approval on the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009, a law framed by the state government to rein in corruption by confiscating the assets of public servants who amassed property beyond their known sources of income.

The division bench of Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Ravi Ranjan today dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by some public servants challenging the confiscation process initiated by the special vigilance court constituted under the act.

The court, however, made a minor but important modification vis-à-vis payment of interest on the confiscated assets to an accused if proved innocent after the conclusion of the trial.

The court said that payment of interest of 5 per cent should be linked to the bank rate.

The court further modified the act’s provision of completing the appeal filed in the high court within six months. The high court order said the appeal should be preferably heard within six months.

The court had reserved in its judgment on January 3, after hearing arguments of both sides.

Senior government officials such as suspended IAS officer and former minor irrigation department secretary S.S. Verma, former director-general of police Narain Mishra, former state drug controller Y.K. Jaiswal and former Raj Bhasha director Dhruv Narain Choudhary had challenged the act.

While defending the act, the state government submitted that it was not confiscating property at all. Instead, it was just taking back the ill-gotten money acquired by public servants, who fail to justify their sources of income.

State advocate-general Ram Balak Mahto, who was assisted by additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore, contended that the act was valid because a similar law titled Orissa Special Courts Act was upheld by the Orissa High Court.

Abhinav Srivastava, the counsel of one of the petitioners, said the act violated Article 20 (3) of the Indian Constitution, which states that no accused should be forced to testify against himself.