The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice has invited suggestions from members of public on the amendments sought to be made by the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014. This Bill seeks to make the following amendments:
- To make enabling provision for inclusion of the Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) as a member of the Selection Committee to make recommendations to the President of India for appointment of the Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal.
- To lay down the tenure of the eminent jurist nominated as Member of the Lokpal.
- To provide for appropriate eligibility conditions for appointment to the post of the Director of Prosecution for the sake of functional independence of that institution.
- To provide for a scheme wherein the filing of information by the public servants is brought in harmony with the provisions of the respective Acts, Rules or Regulations as applicable to different categories of public service.
The above Parliamentary Committee has invited suggestions from the public by publishing a public notice in newspapers today (7 January 2015). These suggestions can be sent to the committee in two copies, typed in double space in English or Hindi to Shri Ashok K Sahoo, Joint Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 222, Second Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001 (Telephone: 23035365, Fax: 23016784, Email: rs-cpers@sansad.nic.in) within one month.
It is mentioned in the aforesaid public notice that the above Lokpal Amendment Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 8 December 2014 and has been referred to the aforesaid Parliamentary Committee headed by Dr. E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan, Member, Rajya Sabha, for examination and report by 25 March 2015.
Thus, it appears that the implementation of the Lokpal Act will be delayed further for at least a few months more. It was expected that the Government would appoint Lokpal on priority basis while other minor modifications in the Lokpal act could have been made later. The only urgent change in the Lokpal Act which was required to be made was to include the Leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee, in place of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, whenever no such Leader of Opposition was appointed. Recently, the Government got an amendment passed to the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, for similarly including the leader of the single largest opposition party in Lok Sabha as a member of the selection committee to appoint Director of the CBI. A similar amendment could easily have been got passed for the Lokpal Act also. Moreover, recently, the Government has promulgated various ordinances for issues some of which may not even be that urgent. However, the Government did not show any similar urgency for the Lokpal Act amendments. Due to this, unfortunately, the implementation of the Lokpal Act is getting delayed.
It appears that Lokpal Act has been passed as a ritual and now again its implementation is getting delayed for one reason or another. It is noteworthy that passing of the Lokpal Act itself took more than 40 years due to apathy on the part of the politicians belonging to all parties.
A copy of the public notice issued by the above Parliamentary Committee is reproduced below (as it appeared in today’s newspapers):
