New Delhi, September 14: Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Sunday announced that the Centre proposed to set up 71 new CBI courts for dealing with cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Announcing this at the valedictory function of the National Seminar on ‘Fighting Crimes Related to Corruption,’ he exhorted the CBI to instil a fear of punishment amongst the corrupt public servants. “These additional courts will help in expediting the trial of anti-corruption cases. The impact of anti-corruption efforts of the government will be felt, if the cases are registered and trial is completed in a time frame of 2 to 3 years,” he added.
He said the present 65-70 per cent conviction rate should be pushed forward. A coordinated effort “is needed on the part of the police officers, law officers and the judicial officers to secure early disposal of the cases. There is a need for rationalisation and simplification of procedures to prevent the corrupt and dishonest elements in the system from cornering the benefit of the Constitutional safeguards.”
Mr. Moily said: “There are 9,310 cases of CBI pending before various courts and more than 2,000 cases are pending for more than 10 years. A large number of these cases are against dishonest and corrupt public servants and their associates who have allegedly played havoc with the system in their pursuit of self-aggrandisation. The delay in the trial of these cases essentially means delay in effective action against the corrupt elements and relief to the ordinary citizens of this country who are victims of corruption.”
He said: “Out of 153 cases for sanction, 21 cases were pending for more than 3 years, 26 cases between 2-3 years, 25 between 1-2 years. The departmental inquiries are soft-pedalled either out of patronage or misplaced compassion.”
“The delivery of expeditious and qualitative justice is important for strengthening the rule of law; building a fair, just and equitable society. The judicial system needs to be strengthened to cope with the pressure of the pendency of cases.”
CBI Director Ashwani Kumar emphasised the major ideas flagged by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, in his inaugural speech on Saturday, “particularly the ideas that certainty of punishment has a deterrent effect on the corrupt public servants; issue of grant of prosecution sanction for public servant; confiscation of property of corrupt official, and prevalence of corruption as violation of basic human right.”
He also said that the “menace of corruption needs to be handled comprehensively. A multi-disciplinary approach of the agencies associated with the delivery of criminal justice can only tackle this problem.”
CBI Special Director S.C. Sinha proposed a vote of thanks.
—Agencies