Distinguished delegates, Invitees, Friends from the Media, Union Home Secretary, Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court, Hon’ble guests from the rostrum, I have been asked to perform the most pleasant duty of this morning session i.e. to propose a vote of thanks to all of you for having accepted our invitation to grace this occasion. Thank you for coming.

          We are all indeed most grateful to our Chief Guest Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India for having agreed to inaugurate this Seminar. In fact the theme of the Seminar “Fighting Crime related to Corruption” was an off the cuff remark of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India which triggered the whole idea of this National Seminar. Sir, thank you for the idea and your time.

          Distinguished delegates, I want to mention two more points which have contributed immensely in our fight against corruption in the recent past. This is a copy of the DO letter which has been written by the Hon’ble Chief Justice on 7th April, 2008 addressed to Dear Shri Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji, (Sir, do I have your permission to quote a few words from it?) “As you are aware the menace of corruption amongst public servants continues to rise unabated thereby eating into the vitals of our social and economic fabrique. The accused in such cases besides being highly influential and well connected command vast resources and have vested interest in prolonging the trial. Though Special Courts have been set up for trial of such cases investigated by the CBI, the number of such courts is too small to ensure an expeditious trial. It has, therefore, become imperative to adequately increase the number of such Courts so as to conclude the trial and punish the guilty within a reasonable time frame. Details regarding number of additional courts required for such cases are given in the appendix”. The Hon’ble CJI himself worked out the work load, the burden on each of the Special Judges and concluded that the number of cases with the Special Judges need to be reduced to a reasonable number so that they can be disposed of expeditiously. He says “I request to instill confidence in our service delivery system and enhance our international image. Please set up these courts immediately”. On this, the Hon’ble Prime Minister with the guidance and advice of the Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology our Hon’ble Minister for Earth Sciences, Personnel, they took the initiative and the Prime Minister has agreed to set up 71 courts.

          Sir, our request to you is that these 71 courts need not become like the ordinary Prevention of Corruption Act Courts. They should be model courts as already hinted by the Hon’ble Minister that these courts should have all the facilities and may I also suggest to the delegates for this seminar can we limit the number of cases being sent to these courts so that they do not become over burdened and are able to dispose of the cases in a given time frame.

          Some of the delegates raised a question about delay in trial. Ladies & Gentlemen, I have a judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court. This judgement was delivered on 24.08.2009 by the Hon’ble Justices, of course, Chief Justice of India Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, Hon’ble Justice Shri P Sadashivam, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Dr. B.S. Chauhan. They upheld the judgement of Justice S Murlidhar of Delhi High Court which said that under section 19(3)(c) of PC Act, no revision petition would be maintainable in the High Court against the order on framing of charges, interlocutory order under section 397, 482 and 227 of the Constitution of India. This judgement has come recently and some of the doubts which have been raised by the delegates, I am sure they will be addressed.

          Sir, we are very proud to have amongst us our dynamic and most professional and honest Minister for Personnel, Shri Prithviraj Ji. Had it not been for his efforts, this seminar would not have been possible and we would not have been able to come before you to say that Govt. of India is serious about fighting corruption and crimes related to corruption.

          I am also grateful to our new Secretary (Personnel), Shri Shantanu Consul. He has joined as Secretary (Personnel) only 11 days ago. Sir, we welcome you to this fraternity and assure you of all our cooperation in making your tenure a success in the Personnel Department. Sir, Shri Kamlendra Prasad, he is the Director of NICFS. I place special thanks from our side. He has taken this initiative to organize this Seminar and he has been working very hard.

          I hope my officers from the CBI led by Shri Balwinder Singh have done everything to make your stay comfortable. I compliment each one of these officers for having worked hard for the last one month to ensure that everything goes on as per plans. If there have been any shortcomings, I am to blame. Please bring it to my notice immediately. There are still two days left. Please give me and my organization an opportunity to come up to your expectations. We assure you that whatever is in our power, we will ensure that your stay is comfortable and the deliberations are conducted in a most professional manner. Like always, let me also thank our friends from the media. We love each one of you. We respect your independence as well as your shortcomings.

          Thank you ladies and gentlemen, for joining us on this occasion. I hope the deliberations of this Seminar would be fruitful and conducted in a very professional manner.

Thank you and Jai Hind.