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

Green cities: A pathway to sustainability

As the world observes Earth Day on April 22, the imperative for sustainable urban development has never been more pressing. Urban areas contribute approximately 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UN-Habitat Report, 2023). In India, the urban population is projected to reach 800 million by 2050 (

A unique way of looking at nature, at people, at life itself

Another Day in Landour: Looking Out from My Window By Ruskin Bond HarperCollins, 220 pages, Rs 399 Landour is a q

‘Better than the entire world’: Here’s the ‘India book’ for ages

The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India By Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph Books, 624 pages, Rs 999 Vet

Why the youth’s ‘affair’ with stock market is usually tragic

Nine out of 10 individual traders in the equity Futures and Options (F&O) segment have incurred net losses, according to a recent SEBI study. What’s even more striking is that a significant portion of these traders are young individuals – students, early professionals and first-time earners

Why recognizing unpaid work makes sense

Across the globe, unpaid domestic and caregiving work remains an unseen yet essential contributor to economic and social well-being. Women, in particular, dedicate significant hours to household tasks and caregiving, yet this labour remains excluded from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations, leading t

News broadcast needs to reinvent, innovate: Sudhir Chaudhary

Popular news anchor and veteran journalist Sudhir Chaudhary says the news broadcast industry has not reinvented itself in the last 20 years, leading to news consumption gradually shifting to other platforms. Unlike social media influencers with millions of followers, there are no stars in the news industry

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