Corrupt officials face harsh penalty

As the brouhaha over Hazare's campaign against corruption increases, the government is considering a slew of measures for faster punishment to corrupt officials, including termination of service, once the trial begins. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Aug 25, 2011, 02:09:32 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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As the brouhaha over Hazare's campaign against corruption increases, the government is considering a slew of measures for faster punishment to corrupt officials, including termination of service, once the trial begins.

The government is considering a set of recommendations by a committee of experts and a Group of Ministers (GoM) to pursue its policy of zero-tolerance towards corruption, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

One such measure is an amendment of Article 311 of the Constitution to allow termination of service on charges of corrupt practices after beginning of trial in a competent court.

The Article provides protection to government officials against dismissal till the accused is proved guilty by a court, or by a competent authority, without giving the official a chance to represent his/her case.

To quickly tackle cases related to corruption, the committee has asked the government to allow a two-month period for completion of minor penalty, and a year for major penalty cases and dispensing with consultation with the UPSC in case of minor penalty.

A new provision of plea bargaining in cases of major penalty inquiries has also been suggested by the committee.

To end delay in getting prosecution sanction, a GoM suggested that the prosecution sanction should come within three months in cases where a draft chargesheet and related documents have been submitted.

The GoM also recommended that a major penalty of compulsory retirement should be modified to provide for reduction in pension of up to 33%.

Both the expert committee and the GoM have recommended dilution of role of the CVC and the UPSC in initiating penalty action against officials who are found corrupt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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