New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and the states to take appropriate steps to weed out corruption, black money generation and benami transaction and to improve India’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index.
The petition has been filed by advocate and BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who contended that India has never been ranked among top 50 in corruption perception index, but the Centre and the states have not taken steps to weed out bribery, black money generation, benami transaction, money laundering and tax evasion though these menaces brazenly offend rule of law, right to trade and right to life guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 & 21.
“The injury caused to people is extremely large because corruption is insidious plague, having wide range of corrosive effects on country. It undermines democracy and rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes quality of life and allows organised crime like separatism, terrorism, Naxalism, radicalism, gambling, smuggling, kidnapping, money laundering and extortion and other threats to human security to flourish,”
-said the petitioner.
The petitioner submits: “India’s anti corruption laws are weaker than developed country”.
Therefore he prays for following directions:
a) Direct Centre and States to constitute expert committees to examine good practices of the countries, ranked among top 20 in Corruption Perception Index and accordingly take apposite steps to weed-out bribery, black money generation, benami transaction, tax evasion, money laundering profiteering, hoarding, adulteration, human-drug trafficking, black marketing, cheating, mischief, forgery, dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, dishonestly inducing delivery of property, cheating by impersonation, concealment of property, falsification of accounts and frauds including corporate fraud, capital market fraud, forensic fraud and accounting fraud;
b) Alternatively, being custodian of the Constitution and protector of fundamental rights, direct the Law Commission to suggest steps to weed-out corruption, black money generation, benami transaction and improve India’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index;
c) Pass such other order(s) as Court deem fit to weed-out corruption and improve India’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index.
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Read the petition here;
CPI-Writ– India Legal Bureau