SC wants Lokpal probables by Feb-end

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 17

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Lokpal search committee headed by former top court judge Ranjana Desai to prepare a panel of names by the end of February for consideration of the selection committee for appointment of India’s first ombudsman.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi — which is hearing a PIL seeking direction to the government to appoint the Lokpal expeditiously — posted the matter for further hearing on March 7.

Enacted in 2013, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act received presidential assent on January 1, 2014 and came into force on January 16, 2014. However, the first Lokpal is yet to be appointed and many states were also dithering in appointing Lokayuktas.

The Bench asked the government to provide all necessary support in terms of office, manpower and infrastructure to enable the search committee to complete its task within the timeframe fixed after Attorney General KK Venugopal talked about problems faced by the search committee on these counts.

Petitioner Common Cause’s advocate Prashant Bhushan demanded that there should be transparency in the functioning of the search committee and that the criteria followed by it should be made public.

The CJI turned it down, saying at this juncture it was only needed that the committee should complete its task at the earliest. Once the committee submitted to the panel, all the names would be given to the petitioner, he told Bhushan. 

The Bench — which also included Justices LN Rao and Sanjay Kishan Kaul — asked Bhushan to have faith in the committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge and see things in a positive manner. “Mr Bhushan, try to see things positively, the world will be better to you,” the CJI told Bhushan who insisted that the entire process should be transparent.

The Centre on September 27, 2018 had constituted an eight-member search committee headed by Justice Desai to recommend names to the selection panel for appointment of India's first Lokpal. 

Other members of the search committee are former chief of State Bank of India Arundhati Bhattacharya, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash, Indian Space Research Organisation head AS Kiran Kumar, former judge of Allahabad High Court Sakha 

Ram Singh Yadav, former Gujarat Police head Shabbirhusein S Khandwawala, former IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre Lalit K Panwar, and former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar.