SC notice to Centre on PIL alleging dilution of anti-corruption law
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to respond to a public interest petition challenging the validity of a new provision added to the anticorruption law, under which an investigation agency wishing to launch a probe against a government employee or functionary can do so only after this is approved by the government.
The old law extended this benefit only to officers of the rank of joint secretary and above. The amendment was notified in July.
The Public Interest Litigation, filed by the Centre for Public Interest and Litigation (CPIL) also challenges the removal of a provision from the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) that allowed for the prosecution of public servants who abuse their position for extending pecuniary benefits or other advantage to anyone else.
Hindustan Times reported on November 9 that this amendment had encouraged several people accused in cases where government officers were alleged to have done just this (abused their position for the benefit of others) to ask for their cases to be reviewed.
According to the petitioner, this provision has been used in most cases of prosecution of public servants under the anti-graft law where there may not be a charge of directly accepting bribes.
It was this provision that was invoked to prosecute officials in the coal scam where officials gave leases to companies, who they knew were ineligible, the petitioner added.
“We think that you are entitled to a hearing and so we have issued the notice,” a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told CPIL’S counsel Prashant Bhushan at the hearing.
An official in the Union home ministry, asking not to be named, said the government would not comment on the petition since it was sub-judice.
The CPIL has contended that a provision, similar to the new one mandating prior sanction, had already been held as unconstitutional by the top court.
In 2014, the petition says, the SC had struck down two sections – 6(A)(1)(a) and 6A(1)(b) of Delhi Police Special Establishment Act, which mandated obtaining prior approval of the central government for conducting any inquiry under the PCA against officers of the level of joint secretary and above.
The latest move to dilute the law against corruption seeks to give impunity to “corrupt officers” the petition claimed.
This is against the Constitutional provisions of right to equality, life and liberty, it added.
According to legal experts, the court’s intervention is a welcome development.
“Not once but twice has the Supreme Court in its judgements said there is no need for prior sanction to prosecute a public servant who has indulged in a corrupt act. The rationale behind these judgments was that a government officials should not be given protection for corrupt acts. The recent amendment in the PC Act has put the clock back,” said Supreme Court advocate Viplav Sharma.