“FISHING THE BIG FISHES, ANTI CORRUPTION MECHANISMS IN

INDIA”
By – SHALBHA SINGH

The Smog of corruption is choking the throat of entire

nation. People have accepted it as an integral part of life. It is well ingrained in the entire
governance of the country which is resulting in the mutilation of so called dream of, “Su-
raaj” (Good Governance) of the people of India. The authorities which are steering the
wheels of governance of the country are playing a pivotal role in nurturing the demon of
corruption.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF CORRUPTION

The etymological meaning of corruption as given in oxford

dictionary is, “Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those who are in power, which typically
1

involves bribery.”

The various world organizations have endeavoured to define the

term corruption. The World Bank in its article titled Helping Countries Combat Corruption:
The Role of the World Bank has attempted to elucidate the term, “Corruption”. It states that
corruption engulfs a wide range of human actions. In order to interpret its effect on the
political cloak or economy of a country, all those specific types of activities and transactions
which fall within its ambit helps to unwind the term corruption. After scrutinizing various
things the World Bank adopted a working definition of corruption and also developed a
taxonomy of the different forms of corruption which were consistent with the definition. The
best suited definition which was adopted was, “the abuse of public office for private gain.2”

One of the leading organisations in the world viz Transparency

3
International is vehemently promoting the fight against the corruption has defined corruption
as, “the abuse of power which is entrusted to an authority for private gain”. This organisation
has further classified Corruption into three categories, namely grand, petty and political. The
basis of this categorization is the amount of money lost and the sector where it occurs. The
grand corruption occurs in the high level government functionaries which ultimately distort
the policies or the governance of the state. This kind of corruption feeds the greed of the
leaders at the cost of public. The other category of corruption is Petty corruption which refers
to the routine abuse of the post by the mid and low level public officials in their interactions
with the ordinary citizens who need to access basic goods and services in places like hospitals
, schools, police departments and other agencies. The last category of corruption as stated by

1 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/corruption
2 Helping Countries Combat Corruption: The Role of the World Bank available at
http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/anticorrupt/corruptn/cor02.htm,
3 https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption#define
the aforesaid organisation is political corruption engulfing within its ambit manipulation of
policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by
political decision makers, who are busy enhancing their own wealth by abusing the power,
status and wealth.

THE MENACE OF CORRUPTION IN INDIA

1. Indian Coal Allocation Scam 4

One of the most haunting scams of India was the coal scam involving
the whopping amount of Rs1,86,000/- Crores in the year 2012. In this scam the Indian
government allocated the coal blocks arbitrarily to various non deserving players. The
government not only allocated the coal blocks according to its own whims and fancies but
also incorporated those private companies which had never dealt with mining or power sector
earlier.

2. 2G Spectrum Scam5
This scam also involved the mind boggling figure of Rs 1,76,000/-,
in the year 2008. This scam has attributed a lot to the public cynicism about those in
authority. It involved both the politicians and bureaucrats who amassed a lot of wealth
illegally by allotting 2g spectrum to telephone companies according their own volition. The
band spectrum which is a nation’s wealth was allotted by the concerned authorities at the rate
fixed at 2001 for the year 2008. The main culprit was the then telecom minister A Raja and
various other politicians and top bureaucrats.

3. Wakf Board Land Scam

Another inglorious scam appended to the league of scams was the wakf
board land scam in the year 2012 embracing a monstrous figure of Rs.1,50,000/- Crores. In
this scam, Karnataka Wakf Board which owned 27,000 acres of land was indecorously
misappropriated.

4. Commonwealth Games Scam

Another feather in the cap of scandals was Commonwealth scam in
the year 2010 which gulped the amount of Rs.70,000/- Crore. It involved various
discrepancies in tenders- like payment to those parties which never existed , misappropriation
of funds etc.

5. Bofors Scam

4http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/Blog/everything-about-the-coal-scam/blog/41832/
5 The top ten corruptions in India by Viral Dholakia available at http://trak.in/2010/top-10-corruption-
scams-scandals-india/
 The list of Indian scams does not end here , BOFORS scam is one
of the most daunting scams of India. The corruption was its brim under this scam which
occurred in the year 1980s & 90s encapsulating Rs. 100 to 200 Crores. The, then Prime
minister of India Late Shri. Rajiv Gandhi was the face of this scandal. In this scam politicians
as well as business tycoons Hindujas were involved. In this scam the people in authority
embezzled the government fund while buying defence equipments.

6. The Fodder Scam

This scam was a landmark scam in the Indian history. The amount of
money involved was Rs 1,000/- crores in the 1990s. This scam was popularly known as
“Chara Ghotala.” In this scam, the concerned authorities fabricated vast herds of fictitious
livestock for which fodder, medicine and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly
procured.

7. The Hawala Scandal

This was also one of the earliest scams recorded in Indian history
which involved the baffling amount of Rs. 100 crores in the 1990s. In this scam the leading
politicians of the country gathered illegal money from the hawala route.

ANTI CORRUPTION MECHANISMS IN INDIA

In India there are a myriad of legislations for anti corruption.

But the ground level reality is that the entire framework is not effective upto the expectation.
According to the report of Corruption Perception Index6 2016, a report made by
Transparency International, India ranks 79 in the list of 176 countries. The Prevention of
corruption act 1988, is one of the principal legislations against corruption.

THE PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT, 1988, elucidates the various ways through
which corruption is done. It states that the following acts will amount to corruption:-
Whoever, being, or expecting to be a public servant, accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or
attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person any gratification
whatever, other than legal remuneration, as a motive or reward for doing or forbearing to do
any official act or for showing or forbearing to show, in the exercise of his official functions,
favour or disfavour to any person or for rendering or attempting to render any service or
disservice to any person, with the Central Government or any State Government or
Parliament or the Legislature of any State or with any local authority, corporation or
Government company referred to in clause (c) of section 2, or with any public servant,
whether named or otherwise.

6Corruption perception Index, by Transparency International also available at

http://issuu.com/transparencyinternational/docs/2016_cpireport_en?e=2496456/43483458
Prevention of money laundering act 2002 is yet another landmark legislation under which
money laundering is made an offence. The section 3 of the said act defines Money
Laundering, “Whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or
knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the
proceeds of crime including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and projecting or
claiming it as untainted property shall be guilty of offence of money-laundering. Further the
Section 4 of the said act prescribes punishment for money-laundering.—whoever commits
the offence of money-laundering shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and shall also be
liable to fine.
The Right to information act 2005 came as a new milestone further embellishing the
anti corruption machinery in India. Transparency in public administration being one of the
basic tenets of good governance the said act became an important tool. This act provides for
setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to
information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and
accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central
Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto.
Among the various legislations, legislature also passed an act viz The Lokpal and
Lokayukta Act 2013 after much contemplation. As far as the historical aspects of the lokpal
are concerned, the entire idea of lokpal owes it origin to the concept of Ombudsman. The
Black’s law dictionary defines the word ombudsman as, “An official appointed to receive,
investigate and report on private citizens complaints about the government.”
The institution of Ombudsman initially came forth in Scandinavian Countries. Sweden
was the first country to adopt this institution as early as 1809. A position of ombudsman was
carved in the constitution of Sweden in the same year. Since then the position of ombudsman
was adopted by various countries like Finland, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand etc. The
Ombudsman works as a safety valve for mal-administration. This act gave a crippling blow to
the demon of corruption. The aforementioned act also issued direction to every state to
establish a body to be known as the Lokayukta for the State, if not so established, constituted
or appointed, by a law made by the State Legislature, to deal with complaints relating to
corruption against certain public functionaries, within a period of one year from the date of
commencement of this Act.This act provides for the establishment of a body of Lokpal for
the Union and Lokayukta for States to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain
public functionaries and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
To strengthen the existing mechanism a Central Vigilance Commission was
set up in february 1964. The commission was set up on the recommendations of the
committee on Prevention of Corruption known as the santhanam committee which was
appointed in 1962. The main tasks of the commission are coordination, supervision and
advice rather than investigating the complaints itself. Whenever a complaint is received by
the commission, it refers them either to the C.B.I. or the concerned ministry or department for
investigation. These bodies after investigation have to send their report to the commission for
advice. It has no adjudicatory functions as such in disciplinary proceedings against
Government servants. It is not even the competent authority for giving sanction for criminal
prosecutions for offences committed by the public servants while discharging their official
functions.7

CONCLUSION
Corruption being one of the hindrances to good governance has faltered the existing
system of democracy in our country. Good governance being an essential element for
achieving the full benefits of various development schemes and programs, corruption comes
in the way of Good Governance. It hinders human development and growth. Corruption can
be so dangerous that it can demolish the entire political, economic and social fabric of a
country. With the coming of the lokpal and lokayukta a ray of hope can be seen towards
curbing the corruption.

7M. P. Jain and S.N. Jain - Principles of administrative Law, page 959; LexisNexis Butterworths
Wadhwa , (6th ed. 2010)