Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Uttar Pradesh have demanded that the Centre should expeditiously amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to protect “honest” officers such as the former coal secretary HC Gupta, who has been convicted in the coal scam case.
A special CBI court in Delhi sentenced Gupta, convicted along with others in a Madhya Pradesh coal block allocation case, to two-year imprisonment on Monday. He and the others were later granted bail after furnishing personal bonds of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of like amount each to enable them to appeal to the high court against their conviction.
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“An amendment bill has been pending for many years. The UPA government had moved the bill but it could not be passed. The NDA government also moved it but it is pending since 2015. Had necessary changes been made to the bill, the situation would have been different today,” a senior IAS officer said.
“Any action taken by an officer for his benefit or in anticipation of personal gain should define corruption. An action without any personal benefit to the officer may be an error of judgment. There is no charge of any personal gain/gratification in any case against Gupta,” the officer added.
{{/usCountry}}“Any action taken by an officer for his benefit or in anticipation of personal gain should define corruption. An action without any personal benefit to the officer may be an error of judgment. There is no charge of any personal gain/gratification in any case against Gupta,” the officer added.
{{/usCountry}}The Uttar Pradesh IAS Association has extended its complete support to Gupta. “UP IAS officers are upset and have come forward in support of former coal secretary HC Gupta. We will do the needful,” UP IAS Association’s secretary Ashish Goel said.
“The Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association (central IAS association) is taking up the issue at different levels and we support whatever action the central association takes in the case,” Goel added.
The central IAS association has also pointed out that officers convicted in the coal scam case have not been accused of any ‘illegal gains’ in the chargesheet and there are no such findings against them.
“The charges on which the officers have been convicted involve ‘misuse of authority’ to cause ‘pecuniary gain’ to someone where such an act was not in public interest,” an IAS officer said.
The central association has said Gupta had been accused in 10 cases that are being tried in the CBI court. Some of the cases have reached the stage of framing of charges while others are still being investigated.
“In 7 out of 10 cases Gupta has been accused so far, the CBI has not found any evidence against him. The CBI sought closure of cases but the court did not agree. In 3 cases, the CBI has filed charge sheet against Gupta that accused Gupta of not following the guidelines,” said the association.