Eminent advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who has been spearheading a campaign across the country for rooting out corruption and Indianisation of laws, has filed a plea in the Supreme Court for having a relook at the 1998 judgement, which let off the hook to JMM MPs for casting their votes by taking bribes inside the Parliament.
He contended the Judgement in P V Narasimha Rao Case (1998) needs to be relooked in larger public interest and in the interest of justice.
In an application in pending case filed by JMM leader Sita Soren, Upadhyay asked the court to allow him for impleadment in view of national ramifications and larger public interest.
"Fortunately, Indians are blessed with inherent talents, innovation and resources but they are lagging behind far from other developed countries mainly due to being infected with the virus of corruption at all levels," his plea stated.
He stated unlike the much of the developed world or UN Convention, the OECD guidelines, India does not have a comprehensive law on corruption, what we do have is a law called POCA Act and we have certain provisions related to corrupt practices set out in various other ancillary laws including rules subordinate legislation like rules and regulations of Centre, State Government and various other governmental departments.
"Corruption is a common, casual and daily acknowledged incident confronted by the general public and forced to surrender to it either to get undue advantages or compulsion to survive in the society. It is part of an individual's everyday life but accepts it reluctantly without a protest as a mute spectator surrendering to muscle, money, economic, political, administrative and bureaucratic system," he said.
Citing Transparency International's survey, the plea stated India has the highest bribery rate in Asia.
He claimed the corruption undermines democracy and rule of law and is a key factor in economic underperformance.
Upadhyay also highlighted benefits of restricting cash transactions and moving towards digital transactions and mandatory linking of property with Aadhaar and PAN numbers like bank accounts to trace benami assets easily.
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