Civil Services in India

Evolution of Civil Services in India

 Kautilya's Arthashastra lays down the principles of selection and promotion of the civil
servants, the conditions of loyalty for appointment to the civil service, the methods of their
performance evaluation and the code of conduct to be followed by them
 During the period of Warren Hastings, the institution of collector was created in 1772
 Lord Cornwallis is known as the father of civil services in India. He reformed and organised
civil services. He separated revenue administration from judicial administration
 The Charter Act of 1853 provided for open competition to civil services. But the Indian Civil
Service was divided into covenant and non-covenant with Indians being restricted to non-
covenant posts
 Satyendranath Tagore became first Indian to become a civil servant in 1864
 Aitchinson Commission (1886) recommended the re-organization of the services on a new
pattern and divided the services into three groups - Imperial, Provincial and Subordinate
 The Government of India Act 1919 divided the Imperial Services into All India Services and
Central Services and provided for a public service commission
 The lee Commission in 1926 recommended the same
 From 1922 onwards, examination was conducted in India as well
 Further, the Government of India Act, 1935 envisaged a Public Service Commission for the
Federation and a Provincial Public Service Commission for each Province

Civil Services in the Constitution

Civil Services can be categorized into three broad groups –Central Civil Services, All India Services
and the State Civil Services
Part XIV of the constitution deals with provisions of civil services

Article 309: empowers the Parliament and the State legislature to regulate the recruitment, and
conditions of service of persons appointed
Article 310: Every person of Defence service, Civil Service and All India Service holds office during
the pleasure of the President or Governor of the State
Article 311: Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank

Article 312: empowers parliament to create a new All India service If Rajya Sabha passes a resolution
supported by not less than two thirds of the members present and voting
Article 315 to 322: contain elaborate provisions regarding the composition, appointment and
removal of members along with the independence, powers and functions of the Public
Service commissions
Article 323A: empowers the Parliament to provide for the establishment of administrative
tribunals for the adjudication of disputes relating to recruitment and conditions of service of
persons appointed to public services of the Centre, the states, local bodies, public
corporations and other public authorities.
Role of Civil Services in a Democracy
Civil services perform the following important functions

Basis of government: No government can exist without administrative machinery. All nations,
irrespective of their system of government, require some sort of administrative machinery for
implementing policies
Facilitating democracy: The civil servants play a vital role in maintaining the democratic ideals by
assisting their political heads (Ministers) Since developing countries are new to the democratic
institutions, it is only the stable and efficient civil service that can strengthen the democracy
Participation in policy formulation: by giving advice to legislators and providing them the
necessary information and data
An instrument for implementing Laws and Policies: Civil services are responsible for
implementing the laws and policies of government, executing and monitoring programmes, laying
down laws, rules and regulations which involve the daily lives of citizens. An efficient civil service can
avoid waste, correct errors; limit the consequences of incompetence or irresponsibility while
implementing laws and public policies
Provides continuity: Civil services carry on the governance when governments change due to
elections etc. Ramsay Muir has remarked that while governments may come and go, ministers may
rise and fall, the administration of a country goes on forever
Developing a sense of nationhood: Several divisive forces of regional, ethnic and communal nature,
caste feuds and regional rivalries often threaten the national unity. Civil servants help in resolving
the sub-national and sub- cultural differences among the people
Administrative adjudication: This is a quasi- judicial function performed by the civil service. The
civil servants in tribunals settle disputes between the citizens and the state. For example: The
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
Role in socio- economic development: Developing nations are striving to achieve equality in socio-
economic development and realise welfare goals. This requires formulation of economic plans and
their successful implementation. Civil servants play an important role in socio-economic
development in various ways
civil servants manage community resources such as land, water resources, forests, wetlands and
wasteland development for promoting sustainable agriculture
civil service manages government owned business, industrial enterprises and public utility services
for industrial development

Issues and Reforms required in civil services

 India inherited Weberian model of bureaucracy from the British. The Weberian bureaucracy
constitutes a career with a system of promotion based on seniority, fixed remuneration with
pension, follows hierarchy and adheres to rigid rules
4
1. Bringing Accountability in Public Services
 The 2nd ARC recommended the following in this regard
 A system of two intensive reviews – one on completion of 14 years of service, and another
on completion of 20 years of service to serve the purpose of intimating to the public servant
about his/her strengths and shortcomings for his/ her future advancement and assess the
fitness for further continuation
 The services of public servants, who are found to be unfit after the second review at 20
years, should be discontinued
 2. Emphasize Performance
 The Present time scale promotion system with security of tenure has made civil servants
complacent and lazy. Additionally, promotions are based upon political patronage and not
performance based
 Merit based promotion and recognition on pre-defined benchmarks should be followed
and the respective authorities have to evaluate the performance of the civil servants both
qualitatively and quantitatively
 Performance Related Incentive Scheme: The Sixth Pay Commission recommended
introduction of a new performance based pecuniary benefit, over and above regular salary,
for the government employees. It is based on the principle of differential reward for
differential performance
2nd ARC recommendations on Performance Management system
 Making appraisal more consultative and transparent
 Performance appraisal should be year round: provisions for detailed work-plan and a mid-
year review should be introduced for all Services
 Guidelines need to be formulated for assigning numerical rating
 Government should expand the scope of the present performance appraisal system of its
employees to a comprehensive performance management system (PMS).

3. Competition and Specialist Knowledge for Senior Level Appointments

 The task of policy making in government is complex and needs specialist knowledge of the
subject.
 Under the existing system, the most senior level appointments in the Central secretariat as
well as top field level posts are made from amongst the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
officers who are generalists. Hence India faces the problem of Generalist civil servants in
specialised world
The First Administrative Reforms Commission 1969

 emphasized the need for specialization by civil servants as a pre-qualification for holding
senior level posts
 selection should be made by holding midcareer competitive examination, which should
include interview, to be conducted by UPSC

The Surendra Nath Committee (2003) and Hota Committee (2004) had also emphasized domain
knowledge and merit as the basis for appointment to the posts of Joint Secretary and above.

2nd ARC recommendations in this regard

 The 2ndARC identified 12 domains in which officers should specialize such as general
administration, urban development, security, rural Development etc
 The Commission has suggested introduction of competition for senior positions in the Senior
Administrative Grade and above (Joint Secretary level) by opening these positions to all the
Services
 For Higher Administrative Grade posts (Additional Secretary and above) recruitment for
some of the posts could be done from open market
 It has further suggested constitution of a statutory Central Civil Services Authority which
should deal with matters of assignment of domain, preparing panel for posting of officers at
different levels, fixing tenures and determining which posts should be advertised for lateral
entry.
  Deputation to Private Sector- A Parliamentary panel has recommended deputation of IAS
and IPS officers in private sector to bring in domain expertise and competition

4. Effective Disciplinary Regime

 Presently, the provisions of Civil Service Conduct and discipline rules are cumbersome
porous and complicated with numerous loopholes and weighted in favour of the officials
Hence it becomes very difficult to take action against an employee for insubordination,
misbehaviour and incapacity. This results in poor work culture, abuse of authority and
Corruption without fear of penalty

2nd ARC recommendations in this regard

 legal protection given has created a climate of excessive security without fear of penalty for
incompetence and wrong doing
 In the proposed Civil Services law, the minimum statutory disciplinary and dismissal
procedures required to satisfy the criteria of natural justice should be spelt out leaving out
the details for case by case basis
 The present oral inquiry process should be converted into a disciplinary meeting or interview
to be conducted by a superior officer without following court procedures
 No penalty of removal and dismissal should be imposed, except by an Authority, which is at
least three levels above the post and unless an inquiry is conducted and the accused
government servant has been given an opportunity of being heard
 Consultation with the UPSC should be mandatory only in cases leading to the proposed
dismissal of government servants and all other types of disciplinary cases should be
exempted from the UPSC’s purview

5. Transforming Work Culture and efficiency

 Present: Government services suffer from poor work culture and low productivity, Lack of
professionalism Elitist, authoritarian, conservative outlook.
 Indian bureaucracy fulfils segmental roles in a multi hierarchy over which they have no
control. Consequently, they have little or no opportunity to exercise individual judgment.
High levels of hierarchy increase decision making and implementation time
 The requirement that a bureaucrat should follow the principles of consistency and
regularity automatically limits his capacity to adapt to changing circumstances
 Civil services’ difficulty to cope with uncertainty and change is a key limit on its efficiency

Reforms required
 In order to provide cost-effective efficient services, following measures can be taken:
 The multi-level hierarchical structure should be reformed and an officer oriented system
with level jumping be introduced to speed up decision making
 There is a need to create a lean, thin and efficient government machinery by modernizing
procedures and work methodology and abolishing the ‘babu’ culture
 Government offices should be upgraded with necessary ICT infrastructure to speed up
documentation and processing work
6. Streamline Rules and Procedures and Adoption of ICT and E-governance
 A large number of rules and procedures relating to citizen's day to day interface with
government which increases human interface discretion
 Rigid organization structures and cumbersome procedures
 Out-dated laws, rules and procedures
 High degree of centralization
Reforms
 Simplification and standardization of rules by undertaking a complete review of existing
rules and regulations.
 simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules,
identification and shortening of various forms and regulations
 discretionary power of public servants be eliminated
Adoption of IT and E-Governance
 It provides Fast, Convenient and Cost-Effective Service Delivery
 Increases Transparency, Accountability and Reduces Corruption
 It helps to reduce the discretionary powers of government officials due to less human
interface
 Dissemination of Information through ICT and increased use of web-based services
improves the awareness levels of citizens about their rights and powers.
 Therefore, it empowers the citizens through information and enhances their participation
 Expanded Reach of Governance: Expansion of telephone network, mobile and internet
connectivity, strengthening of other communications infrastructure facilitates service
delivery too remote corners
 Increases faith and confidence of public in the government and its machinery due to easy
and corruption free access of services
 Improve interface with Business and Industry: Industrial development in India has been
hampered in the past with complex procedures and bureaucratic delays. E-governance aims
to expedite the various processes important for ease of doing business
 But it must be remembered that e-governance is only a tool for good governance. It
cannot succeed independent or responsive officers
 ARC 2 recommended E-governance and paperless governance ranking for ministries at
central and state levels- Each government department and agency should be ranked on the
basis of their move to the e-office system, reduction of paper use, and citizen engagement
through the electronic medium

7. Privatization and Contracting Out

 In an era of liberalization, there is economic logic to privatize those state owned enterprises
which are either running in loss or where they cannot compete with private sector and are a
big drain on national resources
 There is a strong case for privatization of services like municipal street cleaning, garbage
collection, power distribution, city transport etc.
 Experience has shown that increasing use of competition in the delivery of public services,
including competition between public and private sector providers and removing red tapism
has improved cost effectiveness and service quality

8. Stability of Tenure
  There is no stability of tenure especially for All India Services
 Such a rapid turnover of officers adversely affects delivery and quality of services provided
 Further it dampens the spirit and morale of the officer concerned and reduces enthusiasm
and innovation capabilities
 In the long run, frequent transfer of officers of the All India Services delays implementation
of projects and also prevents officers from picking-up meaningful experience for future high-
level posts

Hota committee on civil services reform suggested the following

 A fixed tenure of at least three years for an officer of the higher civil service along with
annual performance targets
 A Civil Services Act has to be enacted to make the Civil Services Board / Establishment
Board both in the states and in the Government of India
 An officer transferred before his normal tenure even under orders of the Chief Minister can
present the matter before a three-member Ombudsman
 In all such premature transfers the Ombudsman shall send a report to the Governor of the
state who shall lay it in the legislature

9. Depoliticization of Civil Services

Political bureaucratic nexus has been an everlasting problem of Indian bureaucracy. It violates
the basic tenets of impartiality and neutrality of a civil servant

recommendations of 2nd ARC on relations between political executive and civil servants
 There is a need to safeguard the political neutrality and impartiality of the civil services.
 The onus for this lies equally on the political executive and the civil services.
 This aspect should be included in the Code of Ethics for Ministers as well as the Code of
Conduct for Public Servants.
 While examining the definition of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,
the “abuse of authority unduly favouring or harming someone” and “obstruction of justice”
should be classified as an offence under the Act
 It is essential to lay down certain norms for recruitment in government services to avoid
complaints of favouritism, nepotism, corruption and abuse of power

Following are the directions issued by the Supreme Court in T.S.R. Subramanian and others vs.
Union of India
 Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), other All India Services and other civil
servants were not bound to follow oral directives, since they "undermine credibility". All
actions must be taken by them on the basis of written communication
 Establishment of a Civil Services Board (CSB), headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the
national level and chief secretaries at the state level, to recommend transfers and postings
of All India Services (IAS, IFS and IPS) officers
 Parliament to enact a Civil Services Act under Article 309 of the Constitution setting up a CSB
 There should be fixed minimum tenure.
 Group 'B' officers would be transferred by heads of departments (HoDs).
 No interference of ministers, other than the chief minister, in transfers or postings of civil
servants

Motivating civil servants

  There is need to recognise the outstanding work of serving civil servants including through
National awards. Awards for recognizing good performance should also be instituted at the
State and district levels
 Selections for foreign assignments should be made, based on the recommendations of the
Central Civil Services Authority
Other Recommendations for Civil Services
 2nd ARC in its 10th report “Refurnishing of Personnel administration recommended that
Government of India should establish National Institutes of Public Administration to run
Bachelor’s Degree courses in public administration to create a pool of aspiring civil servants
and enable serving bureaucrats to attain domain expertise
 Deputation to Private Sector- A Parliamentary panel has recommended deputation of IAS and
IPS officers in private sector to bring in domain expertise and competition
 Central Civil Services Authority as recommended by 2nd ARC should take decision on posts
which could be advertised for lateral entry and such other matters that may be referred to it
by the Government
 E-governance and paperless governance ranking for ministries at central and state levels-
Each government department and agency should be ranked on the basis of their move to the
e-office system, reduction of paper use, and citizen engagement through the electronic
medium
 Outsource service delivery where possible- We should reduce dependence on government
administrative machinery wherever possible

Lateral entry into civil services

Lateral entry into civil services refers to induction of eligible candidates into bureaucracy by
bypassing the regular mode of exam based selection conducted by service commissions
Need for lateral entry
1. Shortage of Officers: According to a report by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and
Pensions there is a shortage of nearly 1,500 IAS officers in the country. Baswan Committee
(2016) had supported lateral entry considering the shortage of officers

2. Specialisation against generalisation at policy level:

 The task of policy making in government is complex and needs specialist knowledge of the
subject
 Under the existing system, the most senior level appointments in the Central secretariat as
well as top field level posts are made from amongst the officers who are generalists
 lateral entry would enable government to understand the impact of its policies on
stakeholders — the private sector, the non-government sector and the larger public
 First ARC had pointed out the need for specialization as far back as in 1965. The Surinder
Nath Committee and the Hota Committee followed suit in 2003 and 2004, respectively, as did
the second ARC.
 2nd ARC has further suggested constitution of a statutory Central Civil Services Authority
which should deal with matters of assignment of domain, preparing panel for posting of
officers at different levels, fixing tenures and determining which posts should be advertised
for lateral entry

3. Increase in efficiency and governance by promoting competition

  Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd in its 2012 report rated Indian Bureaucracy as the
worst in Asia due to corruption and inefficiency
 Present time scale promotion system with security of tenure has made civil servants
complacent and lazy. Lateral entrants could also induce competition within the system
 Niti Aayog, in its Three-Year Action Agenda for 2017-2020 had said that sector specialists be
inducted into the system through lateral entry as that would “bring competition to the
established career bureaucracy

4. Entry and retention of talent in Government- Justice BN Srikrishna-headed Sixth Central

Pay Commission report (2006) said lateral entry could "ensure entry and retention of talent
in the government even for those jobs that have a high demand and premium in the open
market

5. Recruitment of IAS officers at very young age often excludes various youth who are not able
to take part in the formal recruitment due to other commitments- makes it difficult to test
potential administrative and judgement capabilities. Some who are potentially good
administrators fail to make it,. Mid-career lateral entrants with proven capabilities will help
bridge this deficiency

6. Not a new phenomenon

 It has been successful in RBI and the erstwhile Planning Commission, as well as its successor,
the Niti Aayog.
 Ministry of finance has institutionalised the practice of appointing advisors to the
government from the world of academia and the corporate sector.
 Concept already being followed by countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States
of America, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand etc

7. Reduces Burden to Exchequer: Recruitment through formal process comes with economic
baggage of lifetime of salary, pensions and other perks. Constitutional safeguards prevent
removal of even non-preforming officers. This anomaly could be resolved through lateral
entry due to its contractual nature

Arguments against Lateral Entry

 Bypassing UPSC: UPSC is a constitutional body and has retained legitimacy and credibility
of selection process over the years. Some experts opine that lateral entry is curtailing the
power of UPSC
 Offers not lucrative enough to lure best talent from open market: It defeats the purpose
of domain special recruitment
 Difficult to ensure responsibility and accountability since recruitment is on a contract basis for
3-5 years. Further Lateral entry means No long-term stakes: Therefore, short term entry
of officers through lateral entry might lead to corrupt practices
 Transparency in Recruitment- Political interference in the Selection process may occur and
it may promote Nepotism and Spoils System (an arrangement that employed and promoted
civil servants who were friends and supporters of the political group in power).
 Lack of field experience- Officers who will join might score on domain knowledge, but they
may fall short on the experience of working in the “fields and grassroot:
 Deters existing talent and open gate to privatisation thereby making the government lose its
socialist and welfare nature
  Earlier experiences: The past experience of inducting private-sector managers to run public-
sector enterprises has not been particularly satisfactory. For e.g. Air India, Indian Airlines etc.
 Issue of Reservation- It is unclear whether there would be reservation for recruitment
through Lateral Entry or not
 Not a Panacea: It is also argued that it is a piecemeal effort to deal with problems of Indian
Bureaucracy which faces varietal other problems other than specialisation. Bureaucracy
needs major overhauling

Way Forward

 While 2nd ARC recommended an institutionalized, transparent process for lateral entry at
both the Central and state levels Lateral entry shouldn’t lead to politicisation of bureaucracy
 Government must also allow deputation of its officers to private sector as well so that they
get exposure to market practices and fresh ideas as recommended by ARC 2
 A good managerial system encourages and nurtures talent from within instead of seeking
to induct leadership from outside.
 The remedy lies not through lateral induction but through more rigorous performance
appraisal and improved personnel management.
 The government can consider lateral entry to head certain mission-mode projects and
public-sector entities where private-sector expertise actually matters.
 The process of selection needs to be transparent.
 A credible statutory agency like UPSC should be entrusted with the responsibility of
recruitment
 Not a Panacea: it is a piecemeal effort to deal with problems of Indian Bureaucracy which
faces wider problems other than specialisation. Bureaucracy needs major overhauling

Conclusion for Civil service reforms

 Civil service reforms aim at strengthening administrative capability to perform core
government functions
 These reforms raise the quality of services to the citizens that are essential to alleviate
poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and deprivation from the country and lead to promotion of
sustainable economic and social development
 There is a need for political will at the highest level to bring meaningful reforms

Mission KARMAYOGI
Union government has rolled out the long overdue reform of the Indian
bureaucracy. Mission Karmayogi’ - the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity
Building (NPCSCB) aims to transform capacity-building in the bureaucracy through
institutional and process reforms

The core guiding principles of the Programme will be

 Transition from 'Rules based' to 'Roles based’ Human Resource (HR) Management by
aligning work allocation of civil servants by matching their competencies to the
requirements of the post
 Emphasizing on 'on-site learning' to complement the ‘off-site’ learning
  Uniform Training Standard: To create an ecosystem of shared training infrastructure
across the country including that of learning materials, institutions and personnel
 To make available to all civil servants, an opportunity to continuously build and strengthen
their Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies.
 To encourage and partner with the best-in-class learning content creators including public
training institutions, universities etc
 The Programme will be delivered by setting up an Integrated Government Online Training-
iGOT Karmayogi Platform
 Officers will be evaluated on the basis of the courses they take throughout
their career to enhance their skill.
 An online database will be maintained on what courses they have
completed, how did they fare, what areas does their expertise lie in, etc
 An appropriate monitoring and evaluation framework will also be put in place for
performance evaluation of all users of the iGOT-Karmayogi platform so as to generate a
dashboard view of Key Performance Indicators
 It proposes a PM-led HR Council to approve and monitor capacity building plans. It
also proposes a capacity building commission to ensure a uniform approach to
managing and regulating the capacity building ecosystem on a collaborative basis

Aim & Objective and intended benefits

 aimed at building a future-ready civil service with the right attitude, skills and
knowledge, aligned to the vision of New India
 aims to prepare Indian civil servants for the future by making them more creative,
constructive, imaginative, proactive, innovative, progressive, professional,
energetic, transparent, and technology-enabled

 Ensuring efficient service delivery : transition from “rules-based to roles-

based” so that work allocations can be done by matching an official’s
competencies to the requirements of the post
 Citizen-Centricity approach: 'On-site learning' can reduce the gap between the government
and the citizens
 Accountability and Transparency in Governance: through real time evaluation and goal
driven and constant training
 The plan is to begin right at the recruitment level and then invest in building more
capacity through the rest of their career
 As the Indian economy grows, it will get more complex to govern; the governance
capacities will have to be enhanced proportionately which this reform undertakes
 The reforms in the Indian bureaucracy is the need of the hour and It is a major reform
undertaken in recent years to transform it

Challenges
 John Maynard Keynes, the economist, once said that “The difficulty lies, not in the new
ideas, but in escaping from the old ones
 Resistance: There is a tendency in the Bureaucracy to resist the change which
challenges their status quo.Hence, a reform at this scale may face several resistances within
the bureaucracy
  Over-centralization of the system: A diverse public sector workforce needs a decentralised training
and learning ecosystem
 Distance self-learning can build supplementary skills and update knowledge at the frontlines but may
not be well suited for core knowledge development
 The whole burden of self-learning may get transferred to already overloaded individuals.
Moreover, these online courses must not become another opportunity for the
officers to go for the sabbatical leaves

Conclusion
While the reforms are a good beginning, however more needs to be done to ultimately clean the
bureaucracy from political nexus, rigidity, opaqueness, passivity.
The ultimate aim of Mission Karmayogi is to ensure “Ease of Living” for the common
man, “Ease of Doing Business” and Citizen-Centricity. This can only be achieved by
regular and constructive involvement by the government and civil servants

PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2018

Parliament has passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, which amends the
archaic Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988
Currently,
 offences related to corrupt practices of public officials are regulated by the Prevention of
Corruption Act, 1988
 Under this Act special judges were to be appointed by the Central and State Government
under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
 The original act puts the burden of proof from prosecution to the accused.
 Misappropriation, abusing official position, obtaining a pecuniary advantage etc. are taken as
offences under this act
 MPs and MLAs have been kept out of this act.
 If the offences against the public servant have been proved, it is punishable with
imprisonment of not less than six months which may extend upto five years
 However, Giving Bribe was not a crime under this act

Amendments in the Act

 Bribe Giving has been defined as a crime upto 7 years prison term except when compelled to give a
bribe. But it should be reported within 7 days - While Bribe taking is a recognized crime, bribe giving
wasn’t a crime under previous act.
 In the Previous act a public servant could be held guilty even if actions haven't resulted in any personal
benefits but have caused undue loss to the government. This had generated a fear psychosis and was
slowing down policy decisions
 The amendment bill drops this provision to facilitate confidence among officials to take honest
decisions without fear of prosecution
 However, Under the new bill, public servants processing assets disproportionate to his/her legal
sources of income will be deemed to have committed a crime
 Further provision has been introduced for confiscation of money or property procured by illegal
means, if the accused is pronounced guilty
 The new bill has diluted the power of investigating agencies to prosecute public servants, by
mandating prior approval from higher ups.
 While this is a dilution, it has been deliberately introduced in favour of public servants in order to avoid
undue harassment.
 Hence, no police officer can directly conduct any inquiry in future, against a serving or retired
public servant regarding the official duties except when caught red handed
  Nonetheless, the approval-granting authority has to grant or reject the request within 3 months,
and this can be challenged in court as well

Need and Benefits of the amendments

 In 2007, Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2nd ARC) in its fourth report
recommended that the Act be amended to include bribe giving as an offence, limit prior
sanction for prosecution to certain cases, and provide for the attachment of property of
public officials accused of corruption.
 In 2011, India ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and agreed to
bring its domestic laws in line with the Convention that covers giving and taking a bribe, illicit
enrichment and possession of disproportionate assets by a public servant as offences,
addresses bribery of foreign public officials, and bribery in the private sector.
 Potential to reduce the rising cases of corruption and frauds: India’s rank in the Corruption
Perception Index, 2017 fell to 81 (out of 180 countries) signifying the rise in such cases
 Safeguards to honest officers: it would encourage public sector officials to carry out their
duties fearlessly and on merit, while doing away paralysis in decision making.
 Ensure speedy trial in corruption cases: time bound trial of such cases would do away with
long pendency of corruption related cases.
 Inclusion of bribe giver: The act also includes bribe giver which will act as a deterrent for
promoting corruption and luring with cash or kind

Concerns regarding the amended act

 Partially addresses the issue of ‘coerced bribe givers’: though it gives them seven days to
report the matter, it ignores the situation where they might feel threatened to even approach
law enforcement agencies
 Deters bribe giver from appearing as witness in court since bribe giving is itself an offence:
as the provision which protected a bribe giver from prosecution for any statement made by
him during a corruption trial is removed in the act
 Increases the threshold to establish the possession of disproportionate assets: while
redefining criminal misconduct, it now also requires proving the ‘intention’ to acquire
disproportionate assets in addition to possession of such assets
 Under the 1988 Act, the burden of proof was on the accused for offences like taking a bribe,
habitual offender and abetment. However, the amendment puts the burden of proof on
accused person only for the offence of taking a bribe
 Certain provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption have not been included:
Provisions such as in case of bribery of foreign public officials, bribery in private sector and
compensation for damage
 Diluted the provisions of earlier act: By including the provision of prior sanction even before
the investigation stage despite the Supreme Court quashing Section 6A of Delhi Special
Police Establishment act, 1946 which required similar approval from the Government.
 Vague terms such as ’lawful sources of income’ remains undefined which creates the
misconception that as long as tax has been paid on income received from an undisclosed and
illegitimate source, such income becomes lawful
Way Forward
Despite certain issues with the Amendments, it should be ensured that the act is implemented in
letter and spirit
The CVC must issue clear guidelines regarding sanctioning procedure so as to maintain the sanctity of
the provision and inert from political influence
There is also a need to complement the amendment with holistic civil service reforms