Babus to face tougher laws for graft
New Delhi
Sept. 13: The Union law and justice minister, Mr M. Veerappa Moily, indicated on Sunday that the government was going to take another look at laws that stood in the way of prosecution of corrupt government officials, and said he was already pursuing the matter with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.
This comes a day after Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan’s strong remarks on the government delaying sanction to prosecute corrupt officials. The Chief Justice had stressed the need for statutory provisions to help confiscate the assets of officials convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Speaking at a seminar, “Fighting Crime, Related to Corruption”, here on Sunday, Mr Moily said: “There is no gainsaying that the provisions of Article 311 have come in the way of bringing corrupt civil servants to book. Article 311 would require a re-visit. I am pursuing the matter with the Prime Minister and the government.
“We need to redefine and revisit the criteria to obtain sanction for prosecution against top officials.”
The Santhanam Committee report on prevention of corruption had said that Article 311, as interpreted by the courts, had made it difficult to deal effectively with corrupt civil servants, he added. Even after Article 311 was amended, the panoply of safeguards and procedures still available was interpreted in a manner so as to make the proceedings protracted, and therefore effete in the ultimate analysis, Mr Moily said.
“The state anti-corruption organisations and the CBI have to be made functionally autonomous and independent by removal of provisions such as pre-inquiry permissions, prosecution sanctions and power to file appeals. The law ministry is working on it.” He added that the requirement to seek sanction for prosecution should not be mandatory in all cases. There are 9,310 cases of the CBI pending before various courts and more than 2,000 cases are pending for more than 10 years. A large number of these cases are against dishonest and corrupt public servants.
Source::DC
