THE
ANTI – CORRUPTION LAWS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1964:
By this legislation several radical changes were brought about in
existing Anti Corruption laws based on the recommendation of Santhanam
Committee[1]. The following are the
important amendments to various Acts through this enactment:-
(1) Indian Penal Code:
In Section 21 IPC, the 3rd, 4th, 9th&
12th, clauses have been amended. Clause 12 has been substituted by a new
Clause. Section 161, 162 and 163 have also been amended.
(2) Criminal Procedure Code:
Section 198-B, 222, has been amended.
(3) Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944:
In the Schedule containing the offences falling within
the preview of this Ordinance, an offence punishable under Section 5 of the
P.C. Act, 1947 has been included.
(4) Delhi Special Police Establishment Act:
In Section 5, clause 3 has been added empowering the
officer of the DSEP to exercise the powers of the Officer Incharge of a Police
Station.
(5) Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947:
In section 5,
the words “in the discharge of his duty’ in sub- section (1) and (2) had been
omitted. Clause (e) was added by which the possession of disproportionate
assets is made a substantive offence.
The term
“corruption” gained worldwide
recognition and prominence by the time the Second World War ended. During the wartime the public servants
globally indulged in exploiting the public resources and thus giving rise to
widespread corruption. As on today,
there could be a variety of reasons for corruption in India like large-scale
involvement of State, political system, scarcity of resources, increasing
obsession with materialistic culture, ego, social systems, ambiguity in rules,
lack of objective supervision. Any of these factors singularly or in tandem
with others lead to corruption. To combat this menace of corruption, Government
of India, after gaining independence enacted the Prevention of Corruption Act,
1947. This was revised
in 1964 and 1973. However, it still had some deficiencies[2].
According to Shri
N.Vittal, Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the first stage in the dynamics
of the rule of law is the framing of effective rules and laws, which are
equipped to hinder the ever-rising escalation of the corruption graph. As
a result the Government of India replaced the Act of 1947 with Prevention
of Corruption Act 1988. With regards to this context the
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 becomes highly significant[3].
A Committee was set up in year 1962 to review the problem of
corruption and made recommendation regarding the changes in law and procedure.
Shri K.Santhanam, M.P. was made the Chairman of the Committee. The Committee
submitted its final report on 31st March, 1964 suggesting for
changes in law and procedure. The new Act i.e.
The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was enacted on 9th September
1988 with a view “to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the prevention
of corruption and for the matters connected there with”[4]. This new Act of 1988
incorporates the provisions of Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944.The
provisions of Section 161 to 165 A of I.P.C. has also been incorporated into
the Act of 1988[5].
The only preventive
aspect about this Act is the name itself.
Otherwise the Act is out and out punitive in nature. The basic purpose of the Act is to punish the
public servant who is guilty of taking bribes, gratification other than legal
remuneration, accepting gratification for influencing public servants for
gaining favour, misappropriation of public property, obtaining valuable things
without consideration or for a consideration which he knows to be inadequate
from persons with whom he has official dealings or likely to have official
dealings or amassing, during the period of his office, property that is
disproportionate to known sources of income. In essence, this means that if any
public servant is found to be in possession of any of the valuables, which have
not been declared in the Annual
Property Returns, it will attract the provisions of the Act[6].
[1]
<http://indiacode.nic.in/fullact1.asp?tfnm=196716>,
<last visited on 25th of Mar, 2009>.
[2] Narsimhan, C.V., “Strategies
to deal with Corruption”, CBI Bulletin, Vol. 9, Mar, (2001), Pp. 4-8.
[3]
Vittal, N., Corruption in India: A Road Block to National Prosparity, Acadamic
Foundation, (2003).
[4] Report of the committee on Prevention of
Corruption Act, 1988, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.
[5] Ramachandra, A.S., Commentary on Prevention of Corruption Act, A treaties on Anti
Corruption Laws, Universal Law Publishers, July (2004).
[6]
Singh, Naunihal, The World of Bribery
& Corruption, Mittal Publications, ed.1., (1998).
