Every Citizen will be a Lokpal by Simply Repealing of Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988

Every Citizen will be a Lokpal by Simply Repealing of Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988

By

Surendera M. Bhanot

The main reason for the corruption in the country is the presence of Section 19 in the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (PCA). 

Under Section 19, prior permission of the Government is necessary before launching prosecution of an accused. Government seldom gives permission and all culprits go scot-free, mainly because in most cases the corrupt practices were adopted to please the political bosses.

The whole exercise of Lokpal Bill and the Jan Lokpal will be redundant, if only Section 19 of the PCA is repealed.

Section 5 of the PCA provides – A special Judge may take cognizance of offences without the accused being committed to him for trial and, in trying the accused persons, shall follow the procedure prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, for the trial of warrant cases by Magistrates [ss 5(1)]. And the person conducting a prosecution before a special Judge shall be deemed to be a public prosecutor.[ss5(3)]. So any complainant is deemed to be a "PUBLIC PROSECUTOR". In other words every person conducting a prosecution is a Lokpal or Lokayukt, by himself.

This is what Dr. Sunramanium Swamy, Janata Party MP from Tamil Nadu had pleaded in his petition before Supreme Court (Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India read with Section 5 of the PCA) to allow him to prosecute A. Raja as the Government has failed to act. Only after receiving a Notice from the Supreme Court, did the government acted and Raja is behind the bars. His many petitions are pending and more skeletons will tumble out of cub-boards in coming months.

Both, The Civil Society Jan Lokpal Bill as well as Government Lokpal Bill aims that the Lokpal will take cognizance of any offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (PCA) and Section 19 will not be applicable in such cases. This means both the bills, in effect, are envisaging doing away with the requirement of Section 19 of the PCA. So the whole gamut of the Lokpal Bills lies in Section 19.

A corrupt practice is not the official functions of a Government Officer or a Government Employee. He has to act within the oath he allegiance to the Constitution of India. He has to function with the utmost sincerity to serve the nation and the custodian of the Constitution of India – The People of India. If he functions beyond this, he is no more performing a Government Duty. Rather he is abusing the power and authority given to him and indulging in unlawful practices. For his such acts that are done while performing the lawful duty, are private affairs and abuse of the power and authority. No protection of Section 19, should otherwise available to him. So the Section 19 is a meaningless obstruction in the whole scheme of the PCA. Presence of Section 19 in the PCA is a great boon to the Corrupt Officers and Officials and a great tool for their Political Bosses to protect them.