NEW DELHI, Feb 3: A search committee responsible for providing assistance in choosing chairperson and members for the Lokpal will be constituted after an amendment bill in this regard gets Parliament nod.
A parliamentary committee is examining the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 8 last year.
“The constitution of the search committee by the selection committee and other steps towards the selection of chairperson and members in Lokpal, as per the amended rules, can be processed only after the said bill is passed by Parliament,” the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in a notice.
According to the notice on the status of applications received for the Lokpal, the Centre’s role has been curtailed from circulating the vacancy in the anti-corruption body to providing such assistance as may be required by the search committee.
The DoPT had received applications for the posts of chairperson and members of Lokpal in response to its advertisement and circular on January 17 and 18, last year, respectively.
A number of writ petitions were filed in various high courts and in the Supreme Court, challenging some of the provisions of the Lokpal rules. The Central Government had in August 2014 notified the new rules for the functioning of the search committee, it said.
The rules, which have now been “substantially modified”, now merely provides that the Central Government shall provide such assistance as may be required by the search committee in efficient discharge of its functions, the notice said.
It may also be noted in this context that the quorum of the selection committee of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, is at present incomplete, the notice said.
In order to address certain issues which have arisen in relation to the composition of the selection committee and the constitution of a search committee under section 4 of the Act, and some other difficulties in implementing the provisions of the Act, Government has recently introduced the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and other related law (Amendment) Bill, 2014 in Lok Sabha, it said.
The bill is under consideration of the department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.
President Pranab Mukherjee had given assent to the Lokpal Act on January 1, last year.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act provides for establishment of a Lokpal for the Union and Lokayuktas for the states to inquire into corruption charges against public functionaries.
The Lokpal selection committee, led by the Prime Minister, has as its members the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House, the Chief Justice of India or a judge of the apex court nominated by him, and an eminent jurist who could be nominated by the President or any other member.
Ahead of the announcement of the general election last year, the UPA Government had appointed an eight-member search committee in February in a hurry with Justice (retd) K T Thomas as its chairperson.
The other members were Kaki Madhava Rao (former IAS officer), F S Nariman (legal luminary), Prof Meenakshi Gopinath (educationist), M L Kumawat (former BSF Chief), H K Dua and Prof Mrinal Miri (Rajya Sabha MPs) and S Y Quraishi (former Chief Election Commissioner).
But later both Thomas and Nariman had refused to be part of the search panel. (PTI)
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