“In India, the general public are now getting accustomed to the fact that in several government offices, even to do a legal act, public servants expect and accept gratification to motivate them. Those who are frequent visitors to any public office get accustomed to this practice by learning from others or by themselves,” the Madras High Court has said.
Justice G. Jayachandran went on to write: “Even without an express demand, people know well that unless they grease the palm, the work will not be done. More frequent the visits, [the] more accustomed they get to norms fixed by those corrupt officials to do their legal work. The public then start offering bribe without even making any explicit demand.”
He also stated that in most cases, both the bribe giver and the bribe taker end up being comfortable with the implicit arrangement and bury their ugly dealings. Only in cases where strangers to the practice face difficulty in bribing the officials, they either succumb to pressure or lodge complaints before the vigilance and anti corruption authorities.
