The case of former coal secy and the anti-corruption law

HC Gupta would have had some relief if the pending amendments were cleared

GN Bureau | May 23, 2017


#Prevention of Corruption Act   #bureaucracy   #corruption   #HC Gupta   #UPA   #coal scam  
Illustration: Ashish Asthana
Illustration: Ashish Asthana

 
A senior bureaucrat, apparently much respected among the administrative circles, faces two years in jail. His crime: a decision that may have come from the political leadership.
 
HC Gupta, a former coal secretary, is among the three bureaucrats convicted by a special court in a coal block allocation case. They have been slapped with two years in jail and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each, though court has granted them bail to appeal in the Delhi high court.
 
CBI had charged Gupta with presenting false information before the minister – prime minister Manmohan Singh was holding the charge of the coal ministry back then.
 
The court had last week convicted Gupta, KS Kropha (then joint secretary in the coal ministry) and KC Samaria (then director, coal allocation- i section of the ministry) of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code and for corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
 
There are two issues at stake here: one, the responsibility of the bureaucrat in executing what may essentially be a political call, and two, the pending bill to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act which, among other things, aims to provide relief to bureaucrats in such circumstances.
 
As Mukul Sanwal, a former secretary to the government of India, explained in his column in Governance Now, the definition of corruption in Section 13(1)(d) of the existing PCA covers various indirect forms of corruption including the obtaining of “any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage” by illegal gratification or by “abusing his position as a public servant”. The section defines “Abuse of Official Position” under the overall category of “criminal misconduct by a public servant”. The amendment bill replaces this section with a definition of criminal misconduct by a public servant in terms of fraudulent misappropriation of property under one’s control, and intentional, illicit enrichment and possession of disproportionate assets. 
 
“Currently, an investigating officer has only to establish that legal provisions, guidelines and rules were violated which led to pecuniary advantage to somebody, including a third party, and not necessarily the public servant. There is no requirement to prove a direct trail of money, or any other quid pro quo, with respect to the public servant in the decision-making process. 
 
“This anomaly of treating administrative decisions as part of a criminal conspiracy is now sought to be rectified in the amendment to the PCA recently approved by the select committee of the Rajya Sabha. It conforms to widely accepted international practice and is far from being a conspiracy of the ‘political establishment’ reflecting the ‘power of babudom’,” writes Sanwal.
 
The amendment bill has been subject to much debate, especially for the shield it offers to the bureaucrats. “The bill has replaced the definition of criminal misconduct. It now requires that the intention to acquire assets disproportionate to income also be proved, in addition to possession of such assets.  Thus, the threshold to establish the offence of possession of disproportionate assets has been increased by the bill,” explains the PRS Legislative Research in its analysis of the bill.
 
This necessity arose in the scam-a-day times of the UPA regime, when bureaucrats were perceived to be afraid of taking administrative decisions, leading to what was called policy paralysis.
 
On the other hand, a section of anti-corruption activists has opposed raising “the threshold to establish the offence”, as it may weaken the fight against graft – even if Gupta’s case seems one of a kind.
 
One way out, arguably, is what Sanwal advocates: “The problem in dealing with it is not the revival of the ‘single directive’, requiring prior approval of government or Lokpal to initiate an inquiry into allegations of corruption against public servants. The real problem is the focus on a single definition of corruption unrelated to criminality, the organisational context ignoring the many ways corruption now takes place and the enforcement model.”
 

Comments

 

Other News

India’s overall exports cross all-time high of $750 billion

India’s overall exports, including services and merchandise, have crossed US$750 billion, minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal has announced. This is an all-time high and this achievement comes in the 75th year of independence as we celebrate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Addr

Climate actions being implemented to deal with impact of heat waves

India’s climate actions cut across various sectors and are being implemented through various programs and schemes of different union ministries, departments and state/ union territory governments.  The government of India through concerned ministries and departments organises workshops, exhibiti

Banks must hear borrowers before declaring their accounts as frauds: SC

In a judgment with far-reaching implications, the Supreme Court has held that the civil consequences of an account being declared as fraud under the Reserve Bank of India (Frauds Classification and Reporting by Commercial Banks and Select FIs) Directions, 2016 or its Master Directions on Fraud amount to ci

India’s forest cover increases by 5,516 sq km in four years

The Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR). As per the latest ISFR 2021, there is a

Steps taken to meet higher power demand of April-May

While the average growth of energy requirement in the country for 2023-24 viz-a-viz 2022-23 has been estimated as 4.9%, the months of April and May have been projected as high demand period. During the current year, the peak demand is expected to be around 229 GW during the summer period. The government ha

Millets to make comeback in army ration after half a century

As the UN has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, the Indian Army has steered introduction of millets flour in the rations of soldiers. This landmark decision will ensure troops are supplied with native and traditional grains after over half a century, when these were discontinued in favour

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook    Twitter    Google Plus    Linkedin    Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter