Original study guide
Understand the Prevention of Corruption Act
Other language: हिंदी
PCA defines corruption-related offences concerning public servants and others. Start with definitions, then the relevant offence and procedure. A person's role, intention and the evidence matter: a complaint or service delay is not itself a conviction.
A reading map
Definitions → relevant offence → authorised investigation → approval where applicable → special judges and cognizance. This is a learning map, not a mandatory sequence; attachment and other proceedings can follow distinct paths.
Topics and practice
Public servants and undue advantage
Read the Act's definitions before assuming who or what it covers.
Examples and quiz →Receiving, giving and influencing
Separate sections 7, 7A and 8, including their different actors and exceptions.
Examples and quiz →Commercial organisations and associated persons
Business-related bribery and an officer's consent or connivance are different questions.
Examples and quiz →Criminal misconduct and proof
Read today's section 13 instead of reusing the older list of misconduct categories.
Examples and quiz →Investigation approval versus prosecution sanction
Sections 17A and 19 operate at different stages and have different conditions.
Examples and quiz →Reading the Act and reporting concerns
Understand the law without confusing a learning website, an RTI request and an official complaint.
Examples and quiz →
Key terms
- Public duty
- A duty in whose discharge the State, public or community at large has an interest, as defined in section 2(b).
- Undue advantage
- Gratification other than legal remuneration; not restricted to money.
- Associated person
- Section 9 examines services for or on behalf of a commercial organisation and the relevant circumstances.
- Previous approval
- Section 17A's conditional requirement at the enquiry/investigation stage; distinct from prosecution sanction.
- Previous sanction
- Section 19's requirement concerning a court taking cognizance of specified offences, subject to its terms.
- Rebuttable presumption
- A statutory inference that can be disproved; section 20 requires the specified facts to be proved first.
Original educational explanations, not legal advice or a complaint service. Hindi guides are not statutory translations. This is not an official or certified edition; check regional changes and judicial interpretation separately. Government reference · Source checked: 2026-10-02.