Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Seeking Directions To Improve India's Ranking In Corruption Perception Index

Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela M Trivedi refused to entertain a petition praying to constitute expert committees to weed-out corruption in India. 

The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who sought directions to Centre, States and Union Territories to set up expert committees to examine good practises of the countries ranked above top 20 in Corruption Perception Index and accordingly take apposite steps to weed out bribery, black money generation, benami transaction, tax evasion, money laundering profiting, hoarding etc. The petition alternatively prayed for the Law commission to suggest steps to improve India's Corruption Perception Index ranking.  

At the outset, Advocate Upadhyay submitted that the IPC was ineffective and resulted in continued bribery cases in the country. He stated that the US Federal Penal code had 123 chapters and every crime was well defined. He added–

"I analysed many reports of law commission. Only 15 reports have been prepared by law commission on government's suggestions. Rest all are on your Lordship's directions or suo moto. Please see examples. One person for corporate fraud was sentenced to 1 lakh plus years. For ponzi scheme, one was sentenced to 13,000 years."

However, the bench was not inclined to entertain the petition. CJI Lalit orally remarked that such a petition could be entertained under Article 32. He added–

"Let this be subject matter for another petition. How do we weed out corruption? We ask law commission to look into the matter and then what? We have specialised laws already."

Accordingly, the petition was dismissed. However, the court left it open for the petitioner to approach concerned functionaries for the issue. 

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