Life could become tougher for corrupt public servants who get caught. A very significant piece of news was buried by most news outlets focused on the National Herald case and the drama over the #OddEven policy. A two judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of two anti-corruption laws passed during the last decade by Odisha and Bihar. Odisha was the first to pass a Special Courts Act in 2006 while Bihar followed suit in 2009. Under these new laws, the "assets" of public servants charged with corruption can be confiscated by the state under judicial guidance even before final conviction during the trial stage. In Odisha, the law applied only to class 1 officers while it applies to all categories of officials in Bihar. Those in favor of the law are of the opinion that corrupt officials usually use the money and properties they have amassed through corruption to hire the best legal help and often escaped punishment. It is an open secret in India that the wealthy deploy their money successfully to get favorable judicial outcomes, a privilege the poor cannot afford. Opponents of the new laws are of opinion that they violate the fundamental rights of the accused. The Supreme Court verdict seems to have settled the matter, for the time being at least unless a larger bench overturns the verdict.
Away from these judicial battles, and often away from the glare of Delhi-based media, the application of these laws has created a sensation at the local level. In the remote district of Kandhamal (that witnessed anti-Christian riots in 2008), a senior official Jalandhar Pradhan was accused of corruption and amassing disproportionate assets. His house was confiscated even as the trial was going on and converted into a hostel for tribal girls in 2011. Similarly, a building of retired IAS officer Sanjib Kumar Rai in the capital city of Bhubaneshwar was confiscated even as he faced corruption charges and converted into a free homeopathic dispensary for poor citizens. Similar incidents generated a lot of excitement in Bihar. A retired police officer, of DGP rank, Narayan Mishra was charged with corruption and his fancy bungalow in Patna confiscated. The house became a school for children from deprived backgrounds. The same happened with the house of a senior official Shiv Shankar Verma who faces serious charges of corruption. About two dozen such instances have been reported from Bihar and Odisha. It is a clutch of these "victims" of confiscation that had eventually knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court. According to analysts in the two states, the new laws and their application have definitely had an impact. Of course, nobody suggests that these new laws have eliminated corruption and that the corrupt have been suitably punished. The fact is, almost all the officials whose assets have been confiscated, including those who have been convicted by lower courts, are out in bail. And yet, the message has gone out that ill-gotten assets may not come in handy after you are caught.
Analysts in the two states say that the public integrity "quotient" of chief ministers Naveen Patnaik and Nitish Kumar have gone up tremendously after the new laws were implemented. Nitish Kumar has recently won his third consecutive assembly elections while Naveen Patnaik won his fourth consecutive assembly election in 2014. The cynical might say one swallow doesn't a summer make. But in a country crippled by corruption and judicial perversions, the "confiscation" laws of Odisha and Bihar can become a template for other states to follow.
