Moily for revisiting Article 311 on prosecution of corrupt civil servantsIndia News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Sunday said there is a need to "revisit" the Constitution-related article granting protection to government employees and that he was pursuing the matter with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. "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," Moily said. He also referred to the Sanathanam Committee on prevention of corruption that the court interpretation of Article 311 has made it difficult to deal with corrupt civil servants. Moily's remarks follow a stricture by Supreme Court Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on procedural delays like granting sanction to take action against 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, effete in the ultimate analysis," Moily said. Moily was addressing a seminar on fighting crimes related to corruption. He suggested repealing Article 311 and 310 and said a new legislation be passed under Article 309 to provide for terms and conditions of service of public servants, including protection against arbitrary action. He said the law ministry has initiated steps on many of these issues.