A bill proposing amendment to India’s Prevention of Corruption Act was brought to my notice today.  Among other things, the bill drops various categories of ‘criminal misconduct’ that would make it very difficult for investigators to prosecute people in cases of corruption in the procurement process.  The proposed deletions include: (i) uses illegal means, (ii) abuses his position, or (iii) disregards public interest and obtains a valuable thing or reward for himself or another person.

The bill also makes bribe giving punishable under all circumstances by removing protections given to those who were coerced into giving bribes.

There are other provisions in the bill that may make it all the more challenging to prosecute people indulging in different forms of corruption; something we have to be concerned about in a country with such high levels of corruption.

For more information, Parliamentary Research Services has a helpful brief that you can find here.