One step back: H C Gupta's conviction has important implications

Officers should not be forced to make decisions with an eye to avoiding future prosecution rather than on efficient outcomes

The conviction and three-year imprisonment imposed earlier this month by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on the former coal secretary, H C Gupta, and a former joint secretary over the allocation of a coal block to a private business group in Maharashtra has important related implications beyond the narrow confines of this case. First, it highlights the repeated weakness of the judicial system in terms of its tendency to follow the letter rather than the spirit of the law. Second, it underscores yet again the undue risks that bureaucrats are under in discharging their day-to-day duties. This