Parliament recently passed crucial amendments to the “Prevention of Corruption Act – 1988”, to give more teeth to the anti-graft law.
In this context, the provisions of the new bill are analysed here.
How did the current amendment come up?
While Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 was sent to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for discussions.
While committee gave its report in 2014, the Law Commission subsequently came up with an extensive report on the same in 2015.
Finally, a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha studied the amendments and finalised its recommendations in August 2016, and then a new bill was drafted.
The current bill “Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018” passed by both houses of the parliament recently.
What are the main aspects of the new bill?
Bribe - The Bill describes bribe as an “undue advantage”, on the lines of “United Nations Convention against Corruption”, which India ratified in 2011.
Any “gratification” other than legal remuneration (official salaries and perks) received by a public servant can be construed as an undue advantage.
Notably, “Gratification” was stated to include things that can’t be measured in terms of money, as well as “gifts”.
As the scope for investigating agencies to misuse the vast provisions to harass public servants is high, the need for precautions was stressed.
Bribe Giver - The new law seeks to punish collusive bribe givers too with up to 7 years in jail and further fined accordingly.
Further, the Select Committee wanted courts to decide the minimum punishment for bribe givers on the merits of the specific case.
In contrast to collusive bribe givers, the bill states that ones who are forced to bribe (coerced bribe givers) to access services shall not be prosecuted.
Problems - Coerced bribe givers are required to inform the officials of the same within a week’s time since the bribe was given to gain the exemption.
As the situation might not be favourable for all coerced bribe givers to intimate officials within a week, some MPs voiced that the time needs to be extended.
Further, activists have warned that the government officials might delay providing services till 7 days from the receipt of bribe to escape being reported.
What are the other aspects?
Earlier, the punishment for corruption was “a minimum of 6 years, which was extendable up to 3 years fine”.
This has been enhanced to a minimum of 3 years, which is extendable up to 7 years with fine, which can go up to 10 years for a repeat offender”.
Under the new bill, public servants processing assets disproportionate to his/her legal sources of income will be deemed to have committed a crime.
Further, law enforcers have been empowered to immediately attach such property of a public servant, until a proper explanation is received.
What are the challenges?
While it is desirable for corruption cases to be concluded between two and four years from the date of filing the case, it usually gets very delayed.
The new law mandates pre-certification by a “competent authority” for prosecuting government functionaries at all levels, in order to avoid misuse.
As this immunity was earlier available only to officials of the level of Joint Secretary and above, this is likely to slow down prosecution.
Nonetheless, as a maximum of 3 months time has been set for approval/denial of permission for prosecution, the government claims it won’t slow cases.
