PM and Higher Judiciary to be or not to be out of Lokpal Legislation

Anna Hazare called off his fast-unto-death agitation after Government accepted his demand for a Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill. After Hazare called off his fast demanding a stronger Lokpal law, the Committee Comprising of ten members that included five from civil society was formed. 

Anna Hazare called off his fast-unto-death agitation after Government accepted his demand for a Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill. After Hazare called off his fast demanding a stronger Lokpal law, the Committee Comprising of ten members that included five from civil society was formed.

The very composition of the Committee seems to be questionable with ten members, equally divided into five from each side. Any disagreement or contention between the Government and members of civil society will reach a deadlock because of equal number of members on both sides. This is why a majority arrangement would help.

The Committee met for the first time amid a controversy over a CD allegedly involving eminent lawyer and panel co-chairman Shanti Bhushan. ET reports that the meeting chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was held at North Block and attended by Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, M Veerappa Moily and Salman Khurshid and Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan from the civil society side. Both the sides put their ideas and perspective to each other. Government informed that they had an open mind on the proposed legislation. Activists on their part said that they would want the Jan Lokpal Bill to be the basis of all discussions.

There was a round table organised by Lok Satta, the Centre for Media Studies, the Foundation for Democratic Reforms and Transparency International. Among those who attended the meeting were co-chairman of the joint panel Shanti Bhushan, members Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal and the former IPS officer, Kiran Bedi. The round table was organised to reach out a consensus on the creation of Lokpal.

The first issue that came up before the round table was on the number of members in the Lokpal. With wide powers proposed to be given, it would be desirable to have three members. The nomenclature of the body in the signal should not pose a problem. It could be called by any other name like the Lokpal Commission. It should not be a mere recommendatory body but an empowered commission to go to the court for prosecution of offenders.

Another important issue at the meeting was the procedure for appointment of Lokpal. There was near consensus on having a search committee to first shortlist candidates and then a selection committee headed by the Prime Minister to make the final selection. Various alternatives also will be considered for the selection of the members. It was recommended to have it like the selection of CVC or the Election Commission.

The Bill, as drafted in the Jan Lokpal Bill, is too broad-based. Now there is a proposal to add the cases of corporate corruption and NGO corruption. This will make the Lokpal overburdened with too many petty cases. There has to be some filtering of the complaints that can be taken up by the Lokpal Commission. It was decided to leave it to the Commission to lay down criteria for taking up relatively big cases and leave the rest to other agencies.

The round table, however, excused higher judiciary from the ambit of the proposed Bill and favoured a “separate mechanism” to make High Court and Supreme Court judges accountable for misconduct.

“When we vouch for judicial independence, accountability has to come. It is the manner of accountability that was debated and it was felt that since a separate mechanism under the proposed Judicial Accountability Bill was on the anvil, the higher judiciary need not be under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill,” said the former Chief Justices of India, M.N. Venkatachaliah and J.S. Verma, according to Hindu. 

However, not everyone agreed with the idea. There was a suggestion that the proposed Judicial Accountability Bill be merged with the Lokpal Bill, which may be re-christened the Lokpal and Judicial Accountability Bill.

The meeting suggested that the issue of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigation to come under the Lokpal be left for the drafting Committee.

The members were also divided on bringing the Prime Minister under the law’s ambit. Civil society members strongly backed bringing the Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal Bill although they left the final call to Parliament when it discusses a proposed legislation to set up an anti-corruption watchdog.

The joint Committee to draft the Lokpal Bill will now meet on May 2 to discuss all aspects of the much awaited legislation.