Govt’s Lokpal Bill Vs Jan Lokpal Bill: Comparative Chart

Rather than gunning for the corrupt and corruption, government’s Lokpal seems to be gunning for those who complain against corruption.

How will Government’s Lokpal work?

Suppose some citizen files a complaint to Lokpal against some corrupt government servant.

Before the investigations actually start, the government servant can file a cross complaint against the citizen straight to the special court, without any preliminary enquiry by any agency, that the complaint is false or frivolous. The government will provide free advocate to the government servant to file this case. The citizen will have to defend himself on his own!

Then there is stiffer punishment for the complainant than the corrupt government servant. If the Special Court concludes that the complaint is frivolous or false, the citizen faces a minimum of two years of punishment. But if the corruption charges against government servant are proved, there is a minimum of six months of punishment for the corrupt government servant!

Mera Bharat Mahaan

“Sau mein se assi be-imaan phir bhi mera bharat mahaan” – as I recollect this famous dialog of Nana Patekar from the movie “Yeshwant” which came years ago, it highlights the in-depth levels of unidentified corruption that has crept into our lives.

Today, “India against Corruption” has become almost like a fashion trend and fasting seems to be the flavor of the season. And almost every Indian seems to be considering oneself as a crusader against corruption. Some do so by expressing their solidarity with the fasting masqueraders aka Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, some do so by visiting the Dharnas and shouting slogans and a vast majority of it does by posting links on Facebook/Twitter and attending events virtually.

Astounding as it may sound, but before going ballistic over what Anna or Baba are doing, let’s have a look at the other perspectives of such tactics.

Who knew Anna Hazare before he sat down for fasting? And today, he is being called a Mahatma! Does he really deserve the title, given the fact that he stepped down from the fast merely on being offered a position in the drafting committee of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Is this what the Govt. means by the word, “Junta”?

One fine day I was in Pune waiting to catch the “Pune Darshan” bus for Pune tourism. As I was waiting for the bus, to arrive, I and my friend went to the nearby “Comesum” restaurant in the Pune Railway Station.

As we were ordering our breakfast, my eyes landed upon the picture shown below.

Why is plea bargaining not implemented

These days the judiciary has been in the news quite a lot, be it for judicial reforms, or for corruption related cases or for backlog of cases. In fact, very recently the Prime Minister of India made a statement that there are 3.11 crore or roughly 30 million cases pending in various courts of India ranging from magistrate courts to the Apex Court.

Article reference here.

The Law Minister, Mr. M Veerappa Moily has also made a statement on the same.

Article reference here.

However, I refuse to buy the arguments that the judiciary is overburdened with a lot of cases and thus it is not able to dispense with cases.

Judges do not work on weekends, during weekdays also they work only 5 hours a day. More often than not they are on leave and have more vacations than school children. When the judges do not work diligently, how can they expect the load to come down when,

1. There is simply no mechanism in place to filter off cases during admission.

2. There is no punishment for filing false cases.

3. Judiciary does not use its discriminatory powers or existing provisions to reduce the load.

For example, see this RTI reply from the Ministry of Home Affairs which clearly says that the Provision of Plea Bargaining introduced in India as part of a CrPC Amendment in 2006 is effective since 5th July 2006. Yet it is a question as to why is the judiciary not using it to dispose cases faster and reduce the load?

Will the judiciary answer?