Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

color of office

The authority or power that is inherent in an office, esp. a public office. 0 Acts taken under the color of an office are vested with, or appear to be vested with, the authority entrusted to that office."The starting point in the law of bribery seems to have been when a judge, for doing his office or acting under color of his office, took a reward or fee from some person who had occasion to come before him, - and apparently guilt attached only to the judge himself and not to the bribe-giver." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 527 (3d ed. 1982).