Govt nod to amend anti-graft law to protect honest bureaucrats from probe
Government will present amendment bill in upcoming winter session of Parliament scheduled to begin on 16 November
The Union government is ready with an anti-corruption amendment law which will protect government servants from investigation and inquiry by probe agencies without prior sanction, according to the Press Trust of India.
The government will present this amendment bill in the upcoming winter session of Parliament scheduled to begin on 16 November.
“We have decided to introduce the anti-corruption amendment bill in the upcoming session of the Parliament. A provision for providing safeguard to all categories of government employees is being offered there. The changes are to ensure that honest employees are not harassed," said Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the prime minister’s office.
The changes are expected to protect honest bureaucrats from harassment.
Finance minster Arun Jaitley last year said that the law has to differentiate between an erroneous decision and a corrupt practice. He also added that the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 was out of sync with the economic liberalization that began in 1991.
“There is, thus an urgent need to expedite review and amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to bring it in tune with the requirements of the liberalized economy," Jaitley said.
A parliamentary standing committee, in its report submitted in August this year, also recommended such protection for government servants.
The Supreme Court, in a 6 May 2014 decision, had declared that a provision requiring government approval for the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe bureaucrats of the level joint secretary and above was unconstitutional.
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