The Legislative Committee of the National Council has proposed to repeal a section of the Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022. The section allows the Office of the Attorney General to initiate legal procedures against petty offenders without dragging them to court. This drew mixed reactions from the members during the deliberation of the Bill today.
Section 31 of the Civil Service Reform Bill states “the Office of the Attorney General shall compound petty offenders in accordance with the compounding rules.”
The petty offenders are those individuals who get a prison term of three years and below.
The Legislative Committee and some members said the section is not in line with the vision and mission of the Civil Service Reform Bill. They are of the view that, if passed, the section will instead provide room for political corruption and will have an adverse impact on fixing accountability.
“We should respect and have faith in law if we are to develop accountability. If convicts are released without dragging to court, people won’t hesitate to commit crimes and will not respect the country’s law. Today, people are failing to comply with laws because of misplaced compassion,” said Ugyen Tshering, an Eminent Member of the National Council.
“I am surprised to see the section in this Bill. If we come up with such a law, there is every risk of increasing political corruption and favouritism. It simply indicates the government is putting its hands into the judiciary, which is supposed to function independently. The government should not be worried about the workload of the judiciary because it is their responsibility,” added Dorji Khandu, the Council member of Gasa.
However, some members of the House said having the section will help the judiciary to provide its services efficiently and in a timely manner.
“The present trend of prosecuting even petty offenders in the court is just adding burden to the already burdened courts. The judiciary reports stated the same issue. We also see media houses reporting the issue where justice is delayed due to over workload of the courts,” said Ugyen Namgay, the Council member of Haa.
“Our people especially youth have to stay in detention for very long time when prosecution is done in court. So the move is timely for the judiciary sector as the country is undergoing a major reformation. Therefore, I support the section adopted by the National Assembly,” added Tirtha Man Rai, the Council member of Samtse.
The Chairperson asked the committee to revisit the matter during the internal committee meeting for the final adoption.
Pema Tshewang
Edited by Sonam
