Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Begin eliminating corruption from Top first' that was published in Newsband

Begin eliminating corruption from Top first

Corrupt public servants must be declared anti-nationals, according to High Court. Judge says that corruption is an obstacle to development. When terrorists are declared anti-social elements, corrupt should also be declared as anti-nationals. These anti nationals do not care about the development of our great nation. They are interested in their self-development alone. Nothing wrong in wanting to become rich. However, the process adopted for achieving one’s ambition or goal must not affect the interests of the nation and infringe the rights of co-citizens. These are the views of the judge.

It is a bold and open public endorsement of what people in groups whisper among themselves. Since the common man’s only and last hope is judiciary, corruption in judiciary is an unpardonable crime and severest punishment of life imprisonment for the errant judicial members is the only way to curb this menace

It is great to hear the judge say that the corrupt should be declared anti national. But this must apply to political leaders, court staff, judges, firstly, because no hearing can take place in the court if the court staff are corrupt. Another thing is not only the person who takes bribe but also the one who gives bribes is corrupt.

Not only corrupt public servants but also corrupt politicians should be declared anti national and barred from standing for elections or holding any public office. Only Supreme legal luminaries can set right these practices. Everything under government supervision is corrupt and without it nothing works.

What does the Hon'ble Judge expect from his pronouncement? That it will send shivers down the spine of the public servants? His orders had been violated with impunity with the court not taking any action on the enforcement authorities. Why cannot the courts have a monitoring mechanism, a well-defined follow up action and bring the public servants defying its orders to book?

The only way out is to appoint judges based solely on merit and give them a very good salary.  The inseparable part is the quality of lawyers; if they are rotten, the system will fail even if the judges are competent and honest.

Everybody knows who are corrupt. Even where officials are caught it takes several years to prove their crime and punish them. In some cases indicted people are getting full salary without doing any job and prolonging the case. We cannot blame public servants alone. When politicians demand huge money and favour those who provide it they are also pushed into corruption.