essay on white collar crimes in india
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Detailed Study of White Collar CrimesTRANSCRIPT
Essay on white collar crimes in India-by Swati Gupta
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There are certain anti-social activities which the persons of upper strata carry on in course of their occupation or business. These anti-social activities are called white-collar crime. These activities for a long time were accepted as a part of usual business tactics necessary for a shrewd professional man for his success in profession or business. E. H. Sutherland defined a white-collar criminal as a person of the upper socio-economic class who violates the criminal law in the course of his occupational or professional activities. White-collar crime was more dangerous to society than ordinary crimes because of greater financial losses and because of the damage inflicted on public morals.
White-collar crime is pervasive in almost all the professions and occupations in our society.
The problem is quite acute, both in terms of variety and the extent of white-collar criminality.
The report of Santhanam Committee in its findings gave a vivid picture of white-collar
crimes committed by persons of respectability such as businessmen, industrialist, contractors
and suppliers as also the corrupt public officials.
The white-collar crimes which are common to-Indian trade and business world are hoardings
profiteering and black marketing. Violation of foreign exchange regulations (i e. FERA) and
import and export laws are frequently resorted to for the sake of huge profits. Further,
adulteration of foodstuffs, edibles and drugs which causes irreparable damage to public
health is yet another white-collar crime common in India.
The complexity of tax-laws in India has provided sufficient scope for the tax-payers to evade
taxes. It is to be noted that tax-evasion is illegal, but tax-avoidance not. Tax-evasion implies
non-payment of tax due to be paid, the tax-avoidance signifies arranging the spread over of
ones income in such a way that it does not incur tax-liability legally and lawfully. In the
profession of medicine, most common instances of white-collar criminality are illegal
abortions, false medical certificates and unnecessary prolonged treatment in many cases. The
usual legal and professional violations committed by lawyers are : advising organized
criminals, aiding in performing false claims, engaging professional witness, fabricating false
evidence etc. In the engineering profession, understand dealing with contractors and
suppliers, passing of sub-standard works and materials and maintenance of bogus records of
work. Charged labour are some of the common examples of white-collar crime.
Corruption is also a well known white-collar crime. It is not limited to the concept of bribes
of illegal gratification taken by public servants.
In its wider sense, corruption includes all forms of dishonest gains in cash, kind or position
by persons in government and those associated with public and political affairs. The two
government departments which have been traditionally notorious for corruptions in the
country are those of police and public works.
There are some of the remedial measures for combating white-collar criminality, which are,
creating public awareness against these crimes through the media of press, and other audio-
visual aids and legal literacy programmes. Special Tribunals should be constituted with
power to award sentence of imprisons upto 5 years for white-collar crimes. Convictions
should result in heavy fines rather than arrest and detention of white-collar criminals. And
public vigilance seems to be corner-stone of anti-white-collar crime strategy. Unless people
strongly detest such crimes, it will not be possible to contain this growing menace.
In India there is need for strengthening of morals particularly in the higher strata and among
the public services. It is further necessary to evolve sound group norms and services ethics
based on the concepts of absolute honesty and integrity for the sake of national welfare. This
is possible through character building at grass-root level and inculcating feeling of real
concern for the motherland among youngsters so that they are prepared for an upright living
when they enter real life.