Context

Recently, the Supreme Court has made an observation, that Corruption by a public servant is an offense against the State and society and courts cannot deal with such cases as civil offenses.

According to Kautilya, human nature poses corruption. It is the human psyche. He said that as it is impossible not to taste the honey that finds at the tip of the tongue. So, it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the King’s revenue.

About

Why do we need to consider corruption as a crime against the state?

• Corruption has a direct impact on the validity of human rights, largely because of two reasons.
• Corruption deprives societies of important resources that could be used for basic needs, such as public health, education, infrastructure, or security.
• Corruption has direct damaging consequences in general on the functioning of state institutions, and in particular on the administration of justice.
• The quality of public service rendered by corrupt public servants is in direct correlation to the corrupt practices adopted by them. Therefore, the public, who are recipients of these services, also become victims.
• Corruption eats into the heart of democracy, and nations struggle to function efficiently or prosper at an economic level. It harms poor people more than others, stifles economic growth, and diverts desperately needed funds from education, healthcare, and other public services. This is definitely a crime against democracy, humanity, and the state.

What is the Impact of corruption?

On People and Public Life:	Lack of Quality in Services Lack of Proper Justice Poor Health and Hygiene Failure of Genuine Research
On Society:	Disregard for Officials Lack of Respect for Rulers Lack of Faith and Trust in Governments Aversion for Joining the Posts Linked to Corruption: Sincere, honest, and hardworking people develop an aversion for the particular posts deemed corrupt.

Ethics Laws: Codes of Ethics & Codes of Conduct

• The codes of ethics set out broad high-level principles such as Integrity, Accountability, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, etc., but give little attention to how these principles are to be applied in specific circumstances.
• By contrast, Codes of Conduct usually set out specific standards of conduct expected in a range of realistic circumstances, representing a particular organization’s preferred or required interpretation of the core values or principles which are seen as important to its work.

Practice of Administrative Ethics:

• Administrative Ethics implies applying general moral rules to specific spheres of human relations, that is to say, administrative relations. Some of the most important areas of applied ethics today concern the ethics of administration.
• Some of them are unethical and the task of administrative ethics is to make a clear distinction between right and wrong standards and values. The following are the initials to ensure the practice of administrative ethics:
• Faith, and determination towards the pursuit of excellence of service in their professional activities.
• Infusion of Ethics into Politics
• Relations between Citizens and Personnel to Create Favourable Opinions towards Public Services
• Need for Character Building
• Impartiality
• Political Neutrality

Specific strategies to curtail the instances of Administrative Malpractices:

• Effective laws which require public servants to give reasons for their official decisions.
• Management approaches which encourage all public officials and civil servants to deal positively with corruption and unethical practice when they encounter them.
• ‘Whistle-blower’ protection law to protect appropriate 'public interest disclosures of wrongdoing by officials;
• Ethics audits to identify risks to the integrity of the most important processes;
• New Human Resource Management strategies (which link, for example, ethical performance with entry and advancement, and ethical ‘under-performance’ with disciplinary processes), merit-based promotion and recruitment, antidiscrimination protections;
• Application of ethical management principles, the proper use of official power, the requirements of professional responsibility, and
• Effective external and internal complaint and redress procedures.