Plea Filed In SC: Corruption Perception Index

inbatv Articles, India, Legal

INTRODUCTION

The corruption perception Index of 180 countries and territories released by transparency was made by an international government organization at WEF ( World Economic Forum) 2020. Countries such as Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Nuremberg, Norway, Luxembourg are at the top 10 levels. India, being ranked at 80th with a score of 41 per cent and the index was also shared by China, Benin, Ghana, Morocco. Following this, A plea was moved in the Supreme Court of India under Article 32 of the Constitution of India asking for directions to the Centre and states to ensure a better Corruption Perception Index for India. This report delivers an outline of CPI and highlights of the plea. 

What is the Corruption perception index?

In 1995, the Corruption perception index is created by Transparency an international non-governmental organization. Annually, An index is released by their perceived level of public sector corruption as determined by business elites, expert assessments, and opinion surveys. A country score can range from 0 to 100 which indicates the level of corruption. A country’s high level of corruption is indicated by a low Corruption perception index rank. Today the CPI scores and was ranked among 176 countries and territories. CPI has been estimated every year with different methodologies. In the year of 2012, the methodology of measuring CPI has changed and it includes four methods

  • choosing source data
  • Rescaling source data
  • Aggregating the rescaled data
  • The level of certainty is indicated by a statistical measure.

The objective of the CPI to stop bribery, other forms of public corruption and to bring civil society, business as well as government structure to fight against corruption.

Plea seeking actions to improve India’s CPI rank  :

The plea has been filed in the Supreme Court by an Advocate and BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who has been filing many PILs before top courts. He pleaded that India has never been ranked among the top 50 ranks in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The petitioner has argued that the Centre and the states have not taken actions to weed out bribery, black money generation, Benami transaction, money laundering, dishonest, mischief, Inducing delivery of property, cheating by impersonation, grain hoarding, cheating by personation, capital market fraud, concealment of property, falsification of accounts, and frauds including corporate fraud, human trafficking, capital market fraud, forensic fraud, and accounting fraud and tax evasion through these menaces brazenly offend rule of law, right to trade, and right to life guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 & 21 also known as the ‘Golden Triangle’.

Upadhyay highlighted that ” It is difficult to enable excellence as it gives negative impact on EWS- BPL families.  Even after 73 years of independence, 50% of the population is in difficulty leading hand-to-mouth existence and large segments not knowing where the next meal is coming from, with above the minable health standards and primary education levels, due to massive corruption “

The petitioner also emphasized that the injury caused to people is extremely large because corruption in the insidious plague, having a wide range of corrosive effects on the country, undermine democracy and rule of law leading to violation of human rights, destroys the quality of life, and allows organized crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping, smuggling, gambling, and other human threats to human security to flourish.

Conclusion :

Upadhyay has also claimed that passing such other order(s) as Court deems fit to weed-out corruption and improve India’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index. Corruption is a vulnerable disease in the minds of humans which must be eroded to develop our country.

Charishma KS

Reporters Committee, INBA