Court

Ensuring that lack of sanction does not stop corruption cases against Government officials – Judgement by the Supreme Court

The Government has a number of laws against corruption on the books; if implemented in a proper way, they should be enough to ensure that corruption levels go down. However, when the investigating arms of the Government (such as the CBI, ED, etc) are forced by the Government to behave in a certain way, then there is the need for having an independent investigator such as the Lokpal, or to remove the control of the Government from the current investigating agencies. So, the Government suffers a credibility gap in terms of the reputation of its commitment to fighting corruption.
What causes more problems is the state of corruption cases against Government officers, where a sanction is needed from the Government. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, a sanction is needed from the Government for the investigation / prosecuting agencies to go ahead with a case against a Government official. One would think that the Government should ensure that those indulging in corruption are proceeded against, and not deny this sanction; this is more so especially when the Government is in such a bind over corruption with its public image battered. And yet, one third of such cases are in a position where the agencies are waiting for Government sanction of the cases.
The suspicion is that in many cases, some elements of the political classes are complicit along with the accused Government official, or that the Government does not really want that official to face prosecution because they want that particular case to die down (as has happened in the past). These cases would get highlighted from time to time in the media, but the situation remained that the Government would not buckle down; what would typically happen is that when the agencies asked for permission, they were not denied nor were the given approval. Instead, there would be a deafening silence to the repeated request for sanction for prosecution, until the agency would give up.
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More discussion about the Batla House encounter – the Trinamool Congress raises the question again ..

Ever since the time for elections come up, one can be sure that the Batla House encounter will come up. And you can be sure that Digvijay Singh will be somewhere in the frame, since he is apparently the appointed politician in the Congress who will raise the issues that are supposed to appeal to Muslims – not the issues that related to development and how to increase the economic condition of the community (since even when he was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, he was never accused of being good on the development angle front), but more about the emotional issues, about showcasing how other parties don’t care for the Muslims, and only the Congress can appeal to the Muslims. So when it comes to issues such as the apparent injustice to Osama Bin Ladenji (his statement) or the Batla House encounter, it is Digvijay Singh who is in the front.
Now, there is a genuine sense of hurt in the community. At the time that the Batla House encounter had taken place, there had been blasts which were created by a group named as Indian Mujahideen, and the Batla House encounter was treated as a breakthrough, which killed some of the members of the group, and also led to the death of a celebrated police official. During this time as well, the police took some short-cuts, arresting some members of the Muslim community (and the media started treating the Uttar Pradesh locality of Azamgarh as a terrorist creating place); both of these actions were not justified. Many of those arrested were not involved, and were released after the courts intervened and the police had no evidence to justify the continued arrest of these.
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The cash for votes scam – High court knocks aside basis of police complaint

Ever since a few BJP MP’s stood up in Parliament and displayed currency notes, claiming that they were being tried to be bribed for their vote, things have gone topsy turvy. The Delhi police ignored the case, putting it in deep freeze for a number of years (I would think that this was logical from their perspective, since any bribery in favor of the motion would mean supporting the Congress Government, and the police was not really expected to investigate anything against the Government). However, a few months back, the Supreme Court (in another action out of the many that put the Government on the defensive) asked the Delhi Police for its action report on the incident, and actually admonished the police for no action even after so much time has happened.
Given this step, the Delhi Police took a really interesting action. In most cases, when somebody complains that there was an attempt to bribe and exposes, you would try and find out who was trying to pay the bribe and who was the ultimate beneficiary of the bribe. However, the Delhi Police instead treated the intermediaries and the complaining MP’s both as the criminals in this case, and sought their arrest, which duly happened. So, there was no investigation as to who would have benefited from the bribe, since in this case, that would have been Manmonhan’s Government. Even when Amar Singh’s involvement was exposed, it was almost orders from the court that forced the police to arrest him, from where he went to the hospital and was then released on bail. The only people whom the police really wanted to keep in jail were the MP’s and ex-MP’s who complained about the attempt to bribe.
The lower court refused to give any relief in terms of bail, but the High Court took a different stand and released the MP’s under bail with a few well chosen comments that seems to knock the stuffing out of the Delhi police case (link to article):
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