NEW DELHI, May 27:
A move is afoot in the Government to make corruption in private sector a penal offence with imprisonment up to seven years for the offenders.
The government has proposed to make bribery in private sector—both giving and accepting it—a criminal offence by amending the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The draft Indian Penal Code (Amendments) Bill, 2011, circulated to States and Union Territories by the Centre for their comments, would cover graft by an individual, firm, society, trust, association of individuals, company, whether incorporated or not,which undertakes any economic or financial or commercial activity.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken on the issue of changing laws to make private sector bribery a criminal offence at a conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureaus about seven months ago.
At present, there are no legal provisions to check graft in the private sector.
According to the draft law, whoever in the course of economic, financial or commercial activity promises, offers or gives, directly or indirectly, any gratification, in any capacity, for a private sector entity, for the person himself or for another person shall be punishable.
Besides, it said, if somebody “solicits or accepts, directly or indirectly, any gratification amounting to an undue advantage from any person, who directs or works, in any capacity, for a private sector entity” shall also be punishable with imprisonment and fine or both.
The Centre has asked all States and UT administrations to give their views on the proposed amendments in the IPC.
Explaining the move, an official in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions under which the anti-graft agency CBI comes, said local police or any other appropriate agency would be able to register a case and initiate probe against an individual working in the private sector if the proposed amendments becomes law.
“However, the law and order enforcement agency would have to establish a quid pro quo agreement or a deal between the offenders,” the official said.
So far most of the states have either agreed to the proposal or suggested some changes in it.
According to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Assam, Haryana, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshawdeep and Delhi have agreed to the proposal.
Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Daman and Diu administrations have suggested some changes in the proposal, he said, adding that Arunachal Pradesh has offered “no comments” on the proposal.
In its suggestion, Kerala sought enhanced punishment for the habitual offenders. “Committing an offence for the first time cannot be treated on par with habitual committing of the offence. The attempt to commit the offence of bribery and the abetment of the offence are also not made punishable in the Bill.
“Hence, it is suggested that specific provision prescribing enhanced punishment for habitual committing of offence of bribery in private sector similar to the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 be incorporated in the Bill,” it said.
Besides, it suggested “the activities of persons coming under the purview of ‘private sector’ who dishonestly or fraudulently collects money by way of shares, debentures, bonds or in whatever form, from the public and misappropriating the same for themselves like money laundering or money chain be brought within the purview”.
Whereas, Tamil Nadu sought enlisting foreign trip and gift in any form as offence under the proposed amendments.
The State suggested to bring the commercial activity mainly concerned with the bribery activities either in money form or in other way like foreign trip, gift in any form, concession, reduction in rate, selling sub-standard material in priced rate of labelling etc in the ambit of proposed IPC amendment bill.
“There should be a separate provision to prosecute the companies and for cancellation or suspension of their licenses or registration etc,” it said.
According to Home Ministry official, views from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry have not been received so far.
Officials said the Government would also try to get opinions from industry bodies including Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) among others.
They said after getting comments from all States, UT administrations and other stakeholders, the draft will be given a final shape and other modalities will be worked out before sending it to the Parliament.
Recently, the Central Vigilance Commission has cited acts of alleged corruption based on Transparency International India’s assessment report on ‘Implementation of Integrity Pact (IP) in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
“Collusive Corruption, where officials from the public sector undertaking join hands with the private sector, is greatly present in the Indian business environment, particularly in the power, mining and oil sectors,” the CVC has quoted the report as saying. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
The formal process for the election to the new President of India may not have begun yet but the race for the Rashtrapati Bhawan has already hot up with the names of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari emerging as favourites.
With the term of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil coming to an end on July 25, final touches to the preparations for the Presidential poll are being given by the Election Commission and a notification for the election of the new President could be issued in the coming week, sources in the Election Commission said.
However, even before the notification for the polls, several names for the post of President have been doing the rounds of political circles.
Among the various names doing the rounds for the post of President are that of Mr Mukherjee, Dr Ansari, former President A P J Abdul Kalam, Speaker Meira Kumar and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma.
Also in the running for the post of the President is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni.
However, of all the names, Mr Mukherjee and Dr Ansari have emerged as frontrunners.
In the past weeks, the Congress has been holding consultations with its allies as well as other parties for a possible consesnsus for the post of the President.
Though Congress is yet to declare its nominee for the post of President, sources said that the ruling party has been trying to evolve a consensus on the name of Mr Mukherjee for the post.
Officially, however, the party is yet to reveal its cards and said that it is holding consultations with its allies to build consensus for the post of President.
Congress leaders have maintained a suspense on whether the party is considering Mr Mukherjee as its nominee for the post.
A few weeks ago, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary stirred a controversy when she said that Mr Mukherjee was too important for the party and the government. However, soon after, party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said no one, including the Finance Minister could be ruled out for the post.
In fact, political observers say that Prime Minister greeting Mr Mukherjee first among his Cabinet colleagues after the Finance Bill was passed meant that he was a serious contender for the President’s post.
The candidature of Mr Mukherjee has also been supported by the Left parties which have indicated that they are not averse to the name of the Finance Minister for President.
Sources say that UPA ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is also supporting the Finance Minister’s name for the top constitutional post.
UPA ally All India Trinamool Congress has, however, expressed their opposition to the name of Mr Mukherjee.
The BJP has also said it would not support the candidature of the Finance Minister.
Also, given the fact that the Finance Minister has proved to be UPA’s troubleshooter in many crisis situation and considering that the image of the UPA II is an at an ebb following the poor show in the recent assembly elections and problems like price rise and inflation plaguing the party, the Congress may want to avail services of the Finance Minister till the next Lok Sabha polls.
Another name that has generated consensus both among the UPA and the Opposition parties is Dr Ansari.
In fact, if there is a person besides Mr Mukherjee that is favoured by the UPA for the President’s post it is the Vice-President.
In fact, not only the allies of the party but others like the Samajwadi Party and the JD-U have also expressed their support for Dr Ansari’s candidature.
Many parties favouring Dr Ansari’s candidature have said that the elevation of Dr Ansari to the post of President is as per the tradition in the country where many Vice-Presidents have been elevated to President’s post. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
The nation today remembered the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his 48th death anniversary, with President Pratibha Patil and Vice- President Hamid Ansari paying homage to him.
Patil, Ansari and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes to Nehru at Shanti Van, his memorial on the banks of Yamuna here.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath were among prominent citizens who paid floral tributes at the memorial.
An all religion prayer meeting was organised in the premises of the memorial.
Nehru, who was born on November 14, 1889, died on May 27, 1964. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
The BJP today slammed the Congress for its ‘Goebbels’ remarks against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of UPA Government at the Centre.
“It seems that the Congress party and its spokesperson have crossed all limits of decency in political discourse of the country. The Congress-led UPA Government has made a mess of the affairs of the country and even a criticism of its mal-governance is being responded to in undemocratic manner,” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
Mr Prasad said comparing the comments of Mr Modi who has a very distinguished record of governance as a popular Chief Minister, with Goebbels (Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister during the Nazi regime of Hitler in Germany) was ‘malicious’ and deeply condemnable.
Hitting back at Mr Modi for his criticism of the UPA at BJP rally in Mumbai on Friday, the Congress yesterday said the soul of Joseph Goebbels seemed to have entered the ‘frustrated’ Chief Minister of Gujarat.
“Gujarat Chief Minister is a frustrated man. It seems the soul of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister during the Nazi regime of Hitler in Germany, has gone inside him. He has crossed all limits,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.
Mr Prasad said not even a single criticism of Mr Modi against the governance of the UPA was factually incorrect.
“Now, even eminent independent observers are also saying the same. The data now confirms that the price rise in last three years of UPA-II has surpassed even the record of UPA-1,” Mr Prasad said.
Mr Prasad alleged that the repeated encroachment of the federal principles and taking away the powers of the states and discrimination was being repeatedly articulated even by the allies and supporters of the UPA Government.
“Calling it factually incorrect and comparing it to Goebbels, who was known for false propaganda exposes the true colour of the Congress. This kind of language was spoken about only during 1975-76 when India was under emergency and democratic rights have been suspended.
This is the India of 2012 and such a language of Congress will not be acceptable,” the BJP MP added.
He said in fact this was an ‘extension’ of the approach of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had called the criticism by the Opposition as ‘aggressive and irresponsible’.
Mr Prasad further said Army chief General V K Singh has raised certain critical issues about the functioning and decision making of the Ministry of Defence particularly in relation to Army.
The BJP spokesperson said the General has leveled very ‘serious allegation’ about supply and purchase in the armed forces.
“Army is a very important institution of the country and the BJP would like a proper response from the Government which owes a duty to the nation to explain and assure that the country’s defence preparedness is safe and that no attempt is being made to save anyone (corrupt),” Mr Prasad added. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
Defence Minister A K Antony will participate in a three-day security dialogue in Singapore next month, which is also expected to be attended by Pakistan Army chief Gen Parvez Kayani.
The Defence Minister will present India’s views on regional security scenario at the Shangri-La dialogue starting on June 1, Ministry officials said here.
They said the Defence Minister will hold meetings with his counterparts from other countries but the schedule has not yet been finalised.
The Shangri-La Dialogue has evolved as the key regional forum for discussing important defence and security concerns.
They range from military modernisation programmes changes in the regional balance of power, and the regional security architecture of institutions and alliances, to transnational threats including terrorism, piracy, climate change, and natural disasters.
Since its inaugural meeting in 2002, the dialogue has become a recognised part of the architecture of Asian defence diplomacy and is seen as the region’s premier and most inclusive security institution. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that marks obtained by a student in CBSE board exam cannot be revealed under the transparency law as it would “defeat” the purpose of the new grading system.
The court set aside the verdict of a single judge bench and the Central Information Commission, which had asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to reveal marks obtained by a girl in her Class X board examination in 2010.
“We are unable to agree; we feel that the CIC as well as the learned single judge, by directing disclosure of ‘marks’, in the regime of ‘grades’ have indeed undone what was sought to be done by replacing marks with grades and defeated the very objective thereof.
“The objective, in replacing the marks with grades, as can be gathered from the documents on record, was to grade students in a bandwidth rather than numerically…,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.
Writing the judgement, Endlaw said the details of marks, obtained by the student in 10th board, cannot be termed as an “information” under the Right to Information Act as its disclosure would defeat the policy of awarding grades instead of marks.
Allowing the plea of CBSE, it said “no weightage can also be given to the plea of respondent (girl’s father) that the marks even if disclosed would not be used for any other purpose.
“The possibility of respondent and his ward, in securing admission and for other purposes, using the said information to secure an advantage over others cannot be ruled out.”
The apex transparency panel had allowed the plea of the student saying “since, the marks were available with the appellant (CBSE) and since none of the exemptions under the RTI Act were attracted to support the non disclosure thereof, the appellant was bound to and directed to provide the information sought.”
Aggrieved by the order, CBSE appealed to the single judge bench of the High Court which upheld the order of the CIC.
The CBSE then filed an appeal against the order before a division bench which allowed its plea that disclosure of the marks would dilute and defeat the grading system.
“We have already held above that disclosure of marks, which though exists with the appellant would amount to allowing play to the policy earlier prevalent of marking the examinees. Merely because the appellant/its examiners for the purpose of grading, first mark the students would not compel this court to put at naught or to allow full play to the new policy of grades,” it said.
Anil Kumar Kathpal, the father of the girl, had sought the details of the marks saying “this information will help me to identify her weak areas in studies and take timely action, so that she can pursue her career after Class XII.” (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
The Income Tax department has initiated a special country-wide exercise to engage a battery of lawyers for fighting black money cases and filing prosecution in a host of other tax evasion cases.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his white paper on black money tabled during the recently concluded Parliament session, had said that “to facilitate the launch of prosecution in cases of evasion of taxes and speedy trial and early conclusion, provisions for constitution of special courts, summons trials, and appointment of public prosecutors have been included” as part of the multi-pronged strategy to combat the menace.
The department, on directions of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has issued fresh guidelines for hiring counsels for presenting revenue cases at the High Courts, lower courts and other judicial forums like Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and the Settlement Commission.
Government’s top law officers and Attorneys represent the department at the Supreme Court in cases of appeals or Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) like that in the Vodafone tax case.
More than 50 high-value cases of illegal assets abroad have already been filed by the IT in various courts for prosecution and many more are in the offing.
The fresh CBDT orders not only stipulate to conduct a screening and aptitude test for the existing senior and junior counsels of the department, but also mandates that the fresh aspirants’ expertise in handling direct tax matters and aptitude for interpretation and suitability to represent IT cases will be an essential criteria for empanelment.
IT’s new unit Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was specially created last year for filing prosecution complaints in courts “under any direct tax law relating to a criminal activity” which includes those cases where illegal wealth of Indians was found to have been stashed abroad.
“The Chief Commissioners of the department across the country have been asked to get onboard aptitude based counsels so that black money cases can be pursued vigorously. Each Chief Commissioner (CC) range can have 10-20 counsels depending on the size of the taxpayer base,” a senior IT official said.
The CBDT has also revised, post April 2012, and charted out work-based remuneration paid to these counsels for effective engagement of their services.
In order to ensure that there are no delays in such cases, the CBDT has also framed rules that the counsels and the Commissioners of IT will regularly share information on important developments in the case from time to time “particularly with regard to dates of hearing, conclusion of hearing and date of judgement or order among others”.
The Finance Bill of 2012 also provides for appointment of specialised public prosecutors for representing the case of tax authorities before the courts.
The new guidelines also provides for an annual performance appraisal of the counsels by the top department officials with a clause that in cases of unsatisfactory work, the services of the lawyer could be terminated.
“Those counsels who take keen interest in their work and are generally alert and responsive to the department’s interest will essentially be retained and favoured for representing IT cases,” the official said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 27:
Amid widening price difference between petrol and diesel, the Finance Ministry is looking at the possibility of raising excise duty on diesel cars, a suggestion which was mooted long back by the Oil Ministry.
“Hiking excise duty on diesel cars is still on the agenda. It was not taken up during the Budget. It will take some time. It will happen,” a Finance Ministry official said.
To discourage consumption of subsidised diesel by personal vehicle owners, the Petroleum Ministry had suggested imposition of higher duty on purchase of diesel cars.
While the Petroleum Ministry has been asking for a hike in the excise duty on diesel cars, the Heavy Industries Ministry is opposing the move.
The Oil Ministry has argued that the additional amount garnered can be used to make good a part of the loss that fuel retailers incur on the sale of diesel at government-controlled rates.
“There are two views to the proposal. We are trying to work out a consensus. The Budget has just passed and any changes could take some time,” the source added.
With the recent hike of over Rs 7.50 per litre in petrol prices, the difference between retail prices of petrol and diesel has widened further. While the per litre diesel price in Delhi is around Rs 40, petrol costs as much as Rs 74.
The Kirit Parikh Committee on Energy had also suggested a one-time additional excise duty of Rs 80,000 on diesel cars, arguing that it would offset the higher excise duty on petrol.
Diesel is the most consumed fuel in the country but is sold at a discount to its imported cost. The government is providing a subsidy of Rs 15.35 a litre to oil marketing companies for selling diesel at lower than market rates.
Subsidised diesel is the preferred fuel for the transport sector (both trucks and passenger buses) and is also used in irrigation pumps and other agriculture equipment.
Luxury cars and SUVs also run on diesel and so do power generators at malls and telecom towers.
It has long been argued that the rich should not get subsidised fuel. According to Oil Ministry estimates, 15 per cent of diesel consumption is accounted for by personal cars and SUVs.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Budget 2012-13 has hiked the excise duties for petrol cars with engines under 1,200 cc and diesel cars with engine capacity under 1,500 cc, but the length exceeding four metres to 24 per cent from 22 per cent and a fixed duty of Rs 15,000.
Petrol and diesel driven vehicles having length exceeding four metres and engine capacity of over 1,200 cc and 1,500 cc respectively will now be charged with an ad valorem duty of 27 per cent, instead of the earlier 22 per cent and a fixed duty of Rs 15,000. (PTI)