Punishment for Corruption should be enhanced, Centre may consider imposing death penalty for corrupt practices: Madras High Court

The Central Government may consider imposing the death penalty as a punishment for corrupt practices like demanding bribes, the Madras High Court opined on Monday calling for Chinese or North-Korean like retribution to curb corruption. (AP Suryakrasam v. State of Tamil Nadu and ors)..The Madurai Bench of the High Court remarked that the Prevention of Corruption Act should be amended to impose more stringent penalties to tackle the menace of corruption. ."The Central Government may consider imposing punishment, such as, 'hanging' or 'death penalty', for corrupt practices or for demanding and accepting bribes, like in China, North Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Morocco,"the High Court observed..The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation petition moved by advocate AP Suryakrasam raising concerns that State officials were demanding bribes from farmers at paddy procurement centres..In the course of an order passed in the last hearing, the Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi observed that despite the existence of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, corruption has not reduced..Rather, it was pointed out."People are compelled to accept corruption as normal one. Corruption has become deep rooted and has spread like Cancer. Every day, it is reported in the media that many officials are caught red handed, while taking bribes. Hence, the punishment needs to be enhanced. Therefore, this Court is of the view that there should be a re-visit and the Act should be strengthened and stringent penalties should be imposed to curb the menace of corruption.".To deliberate further on this aspect, the Court has suo motu impleaded the Union Home Affairs Minister, the Union Law Ministry and the Ministry of Parliamentary affairs. .The petitioner in this case had submitted before the Court that officials at Paddy Procurement Centres were making farmers wait for days together when they approached these centres to sell their yield. It was further alleged that the officials were procuring the paddy from private traders, instead of the farmers. .The Bench was told that the farmers were made to pay bribes so that their grains can be sold at the centres. Expressing concern over this state of affairs, the Court had earlier taken judicial note of the fact from the visual media that agitations are being made by the farmers for not procuring their paddy in time..When the case came up before the Court on Monday, it was further observed that,."It is reported in the media, especially, in the visual media, that during inspection in the Procurement Centres, large sums of money have been seized. In fact, very recently, it is reported in a news item that a raid was conducted in the Pullarambakkam Procurement Centre, Tiruvallur District, wherein, a sum of Rs.2,00,000/- has been seized from the officials. These raids and the seizure of amounts would only support the contention of the petitioner that a sum of Rs.30/- to Rs.40/- is being demanded by the officials as a bribe from the Agriculturists, who bring their produce to the Procurement Centre.".In view of certain discrepancies noted in the reports filed before the Court, the Bench has also asked the concerned authorities for more details as regards the action taken against officials found to have indulged in such irregular practices. .After suo motu impleading the State's Agricultural Department, the court has also called for a report on the steps taken by the government based on a report by MS Swaminathan. .The Bench also noted that a committee headed by retired Madras High Court judge, Dr Justice AK Rajan had filed a report on administrative reforms towards ensuring corruption free and transparent administration. Following this report, the State government had also accepted a recommendation made for the delegation of powers and fixing of accountability on every Government Servant, at every stage and every level. .Stating that the Court would like to know if any further action has been taken by the State on this aspect, the State Chief Secretary, Vigilance Commissioner and the Director of Vigilance and Anti-corruption have also been impleaded as parties to the case..The matter has now been fixed for further hearing on November 9. .Advocate General Vijay Narayan appeared for the State authorities. Assistant Solicitor General Victoria Gowri accepted notice on behalf of the newly impleaded Central Government respondents. .Read the order: