NEW DELHI: Former coal secretary HC Gupta has been convicted under a provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 that a four year-long pending legislation plans to drastically amend.The proposed law change also envisages protecting retired bureaucrats such as Gupta with a prosecution sanction filter, something that was not available to him unlike serving bureaucrats.“Many of our bills like Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act are pending as the Parliament is not working,” minister of state for Department of Personnel and Training, Jitendra Singh , said on Tuesday.At least three senior bureaucrats working with the Centre that ET spoke to said the new law needs to become a reality quickly or “policy paralysis is a spectre haunting the bureaucracy” after the judgment in the HC Gupta matter that sentenced him to jail for two years in a coal scam case.“Gupta would not have gained from the amendments retrospectively. But a repeat should be avoided. The law is being spoken of since the UPA days when then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said honest bureaucrats need protection. After four years, why is it still to be passed?” said one of the bureaucrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Gupta has been convicted for offences under section 13(1)(d)(ii) and 13(1)(d)(iii) of PC Act, 1988 for criminal misconduct and cheating under IPC while he was acquitted for the offences under section 409 of IPC (criminal breach of trust) and section 13(1)(c) of PC Act. His offence, as per the original law, was of officer abusing his position as a public servant to obtain for himself or for any other person “any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage”.The amendment to section 13 (1) (d) in the new bill redefines the offence, saying criminal misconduct means “intentional illicit enrichment and possession of disproportionate assets”.Bureaucrats said the proposed provision essentially makes “mens rea” (presence of intention and enrichment) an essential prerequisite to proving the corruption.The other big change in the proposed law is that investigating agencies will need sanction from the government or the proposed Lokpal before prosecuting retired government servants too, just as they do for serving bureaucrats.“That would offer a layer of protection in case of bona fide policy decisions being treated as criminality by agencies,” another senior bureaucrat said.The proposed bill has already gone through two parliamentary committees and was reintroduced by the government in the last Parliament session in the Rajya Sabha, where it is pending.