Review of Art 311 to nab corrupt babus soon: Moily

NEW DELHI: A day after Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan expressed his indignation over procedural problems holding up fate of corruption cases pending against bureaucrats, law minister Veerappa Moily admitted that there was a need to `revisit��� constitutional provisions that were used by such elements to shield themselves.

``There is no gainsaying that the provisions of Article 311 have come in the way of bringing corrupt civil servants to book. Article 311 would require a revisit...this needs to be done. I am pursuing the matter with the prime minister and the government,������ Mr Moily said here on Sunday.

The law minister���s remarks comes in the wake of the growing feeling that the Centre was not doing enough to crack down on cases involving corrupt bureaucrats. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has been repeatedly urging the Manmohan Singh government to give assent to the anti-corruption bill passed by the state legislature, which empowers the government to confiscate those assets of such officials which have been accumulated over and above their known sources of income.

CJI Balakrishnan echoed these sentiments on Saturday when he spoke in favour of a statutory provision for confiscation assets of persons convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Mr Moily also referred to the Sanathanam Committee on prevention of corruption which had remarked that Article 311 of the Constitution as interpreted by the courts has made it difficult to deal effectively with corrupt civil servants.

The Article grants certain rights and protection to government employees, which enforcement agencies feel are often used to delay prosecution by corrupt officials.

``Even after Article 311 was amended, the panoply of safeguards and procedures still available is interpreted in such a manner as to make the proceedings protracted, and therefore, ineffective in the ultimate analysis,������ Mr Moily remarked while addressing a seminar on fighting crime relating to corruption.