Indian Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily deserves moral support from the honest people of this country for his bold initiative to revisit the constitutional provisions, including Article 311, which work as a shield for government officials accused of corruption. The minister is reported to have sought Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s support in this regard.

All right thinking people, who dream of a corruption-free India, should come forward to wholeheartedly support Moily who appears to have opened a Pandora’s Box by taking initiatives to revisit constitutional provisions, including Article 311.

Government officials, especially the top brass including IAS and IPS officers, have been the curse of this country for long as they are neck-deep in corruption. And they escape the law at all the time as the law is framed in favour of the government babus. It is decades since we heard of an IAS or IPS officer punished for his or her corrupt practices. And it is a naked truth that corruption has become a norm rather than an aberration in this country.

Moily’s assertion holds significance as it comes a day after Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan’s statement that sanctions to prosecute government officials were not always forthcoming. In reply to the CJI’s comment, the Union minister said that prior sanction should not be needed to prosecute a public servant in a corruption case.

Moily has suggested that in cases where there was direct or overwhelming evidence as with officials caught red-handed accepting graft, prosecution should be swift. He said the criteria for accepting sanctions need to be redefined.

What works as a stumbling block in prosecution is the controversial single directive issued during the tenure of the United Front government during 1996-98 that made sanction mandatory for prosecuting officers of the rank of joint secretary and above.

Moily’s initiative is based on the Santhanam Committee on corruption which had said that Article 311 is open to conflicting interpretations in courts and that these loopholes are exploited by accused officials to delay the trial against them. He stated that all such loopholes, whether in law or precedents declared by courts, have to be plugged.

Whether Moily succeeds or not in his efforts to revisit the laws which work as a shield for government officials accused of corruption, but has surely succeeded in floating a debate in the country on the need to rein in the corrupt babus.