Lahore High Court has rendered a comprehensive judgment on the concept of giving and receiving amount as bribe. The Court, after referring to plethora of judgments from foreign jurisdictions, held that the bribe-giver and bribe-taker are equally accomplices, and thus equally liable for punishment to the degree of their involvement in the illegal transaction. The Court further held that sections 23 and 24 of the Contract Act, 1872 are distinct from that of Section 65 of the same Act, so are their consequences. It was further held that …”if the illegal purpose or any material part of it has been performed, then the money paid cannot be recovered; for the parties in such cases must be held to be equally at fault, and the rule is that, in cases where the parties are in pari delicto, the position of the
defendant is always better.”
