A miscarriage of justice

A Special CBI court has allowed itself to be convinced that the former Coal Secretary, HC Gupta, needs to be convicted in one of the so-called “coal scam” cases. This is no ordinary judgment, considering that HC Gupta has the reputation of being one of the most honest bureaucrats in the last two decades. At one stage Gupta had told the court that he would rather “face the trial from inside the jail” than apply for bail. He was persuaded to change his mind by an agitated IAS biradari, which saw the entire CBI probe against him as a case of misplaced prosecutorial zeal. All those bureaucrats who stood by him would draw their own conclusions to see this upright and honest man convicted, but it is difficult to infer that any kind of skirmish, leave alone the battle, against corruption has been waged. 

The Gupta case is a byproduct of those heady days few years ago when certain forces and individuals were able to mobilise the country against the spectre of “corruption”. The CBI, always adept at reading the political tea leaves, waded into this honest man, who had the courage of his convictions to tell the court that he had a “clear conscience” and the job of allocating coal mines was done “sincerely and in good faith”. Now inexplicably the CBI court has convicted him because certain guidelines were not observed. This has to be a simple case of miscarriage of justice. 

It is difficult to suggest whether the Gupta conviction would be a blow for a “corruption-free India” but it is easy to predict that the sentence would have deleterious effect on the complicated processes called “governance”. Modern governments conduct their business on the presumption and expectation of honest men and women honestly enforcing rules and discretion. Judgments have to be made and are made; some decisions may go awry; some may even result in a loss to exchequer. The challenge in modern organisations, private and public, is to make the officials feel reassured that they would not find themselves harassed and hunted for mistakes honestly made. Otherwise, there would be total paralysis — a kind of Harish Gupta effect.