Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the Centre’s affidavit on appointment of Lokpal after it found that the document didn’t give any timeframe for installing India’s first anti-corruption ombudsman.
“We are not satisfied with your affidavit,” a Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi told Attorney General KK Venugopal after perusing the Centre’s affidavit.
It asked the NDA Government to file a comprehensive affidavit in four weeks.
The Bench–which had on July 17 asked the Centre to expedite the process for Lokpal’s appointment–was unhappy with the NDA Government’s affidavit as it didn’t give any timeframe as to when and how steps were to be taken to constitute a screening committee.
The Congress leader in the Lok Sabha had last week boycotted the meeting of the selection panel headed by the Prime Minister. The panel has decided to go ahead with the selection process.
Venugopal told the Bench that the Lokpal appointment was a “complicated” process which would take time because a search committee had to be set up first for the purpose.
On behalf of petitioner Common Cause, advocate Prashant Bhushan once again requested the top court to use its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to appoint a Lokpal as the government was allegedly delaying the entire process.
Bhushan said the court could initiate contempt proceedings against the government officials concerned.
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 Supreme Court had on July 17 asked the Centre to expedite the process for shortlisting suitable candidates for the post.
It told the government to expedite the process for Lokpal’s appointment after the Attorney General informed it that the selection panel headed by the Prime Minister would hold a meeting on July 19. It had refrained from issuing any directions in view of Venugopal’s statement. The meeting had already taken place, the Bench was told.
“Let’s begin on an optimistic note. We do not wish to issue a mandamus. We hope that the selection and search committee will expeditiously finalise the names,” it had said.
The selection panel will have to first appoint a search committee which would have to recommend a panel of names for appointing the Lokpal, the Bench had said.
“We cannot rush through,” Venugopal had told the Bench, which also included Justice R Bhanumathi.
As the appointment of Lokpal gets delayed, the Supreme Court had on July 2 asked the Centre to inform it in 10 days the timeframe for steps to be taken for appointment of India’s first anti-corruption ombudsman.
Accusing the government of dilly-dallying, petitioner Common Cause, an NGO, had moved a contempt plea against the government for its failure to appoint Lokpal despite the court’s direction.
Terming the Act as an eminently workable piece of legislation, the top court had in 2017 said there was no justification to keep the enforcement of Lokpal Act suspended till the proposed amendments, including on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, were cleared by Parliament.
In its April 27, 2017 verdict, the Supreme Court had termed the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, an eminently workable piece of legislation which “does not create any bar to the enforcement of the provisions”.
In May, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was appointed ‘eminent jurist’ in the Lokpal selection panel tasked with shortlisting names for appointment of Lokpal, replacing senior advocate PP Rao who died in September 2017.