A new Lokpal Bill may well become law soon but what about actually prosecuting the corrupt?

According to PRS Legislative Research, which provides research support on legislative and policy issues, prosecution is dismally low because the Government delays sanctioning prosecution of public servants.

Till the end of 2010, the Centre had not responded to 236 requests for prosecution by various agencies. Of these, 155 requests (66 per cent) had been pending for over three months.

State governments were no better. There was no response to 84 requests for prosecution, of which 13 (15 per cent) were pending for more than three months.

The institutions set up to tackle corruption cases speak another story.

The Central Vigilance Commission, which tackles corruption cases in the Central Government, took up only 6 per cent cases for prosecution between 2004 and 2009. The rest, 94 per cent, were settled with departmental penalties only.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the main investigative agency, is grossly under-staffed. As of December 2010, 21 per cent of the sanctioned posts in it were lying vacant.

The criminal justice system, too, cuts a sorry figure. As of end-2010, there were 9,927 CBI cases pending in courts. Of these, 2,245 cases (23 per cent of the total) for more than 10 years.

The response to the whistleblower mechanism put in place by the Supreme Court in 2004 after the murder of Satyendra Dubey was also poor. According to PRS, from 2005 to 2009, the CVC received only 1,731 complaints by whistleblowers.

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