The Union Cabinet of India has approved to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by clearing the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, that classify corruption as a heinous crime and includes longer prison terms for both the bribe giver and the bribe taker. The proposed amendment act ensure speedy trial, limited to two years, for corruption cases.
Earlier, the Anti corruption Act proposed only six months of minimum punishment, whereas the new bill has increased it to at least 3 years. The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 is now pending before the Rajya Sabha.
According to the official release, the proposed amendments would fill the gaps in the domestic anti-corruption law and also help in meeting the country’s obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
The obligation of a public servant has been explicitly delineated such that the public servant deters from violating a statutory duty or any set of rules, government policies, executive instructions and procedures. The new anti corruption act proposed by the cabinet are based on the recommendations made the Law Commission of India in its 254th Report.
Tidbits
- Denmark is the least corrupted country in the world.
- India’s rank in Global Corruption Index is 85th among 175 countries.
- The most corrupted countries in the World are North Korea and Somalia.
- According to the report most of the largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programmes and social spending schemes enacted by the Indian government.
- India has more black money deposited in Switzerland than the rest of the world combined.
