Prasad defends Rajasthan bill to protect judges, officers

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today defended a Rajasthan government bill to protect judges, magistrates and public servants from being investigated without its prior sanction, saying the move seeks to stop motivated complaints and let honest officers work.
"What I have gathered is that the idea is that there should not be any motivated complaint. Officers were feeling harassed in discharging their duties," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters.
Prasad said he had returned from an overseas trip last night and had not studied the legislation in detail, and added that the state government had cited its reasons for introducing the bill.

He referred to a study offered by the state's BJP government, which said over 73 per cent of such cases were false.
Amid an uproar from the opposition Congress, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria today tabled the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2017, which seeks to replace the September 7 ordinance, in the Assembly.
The Rajasthan government had last month promulgated the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, that seeks to protect serving and former judges, magistrates and public servants in the state from being investigated for on- duty action, without its prior sanction.

It also bars the media from reporting on such accusations till the sanction to proceed with the probe is given by the government.

In the press conference in which he attacked the Congress over a host of issues involving the Gujarat Assembly polls, Prasad also defended the appointments of BJP workers and leaders by the government in various positions, saying there was no harm if they had credentials for job.
During the UPA government, everything was reserved for 'damaad', a reference to Congress Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, and workers were ignored, he alleged.