The central government, through Attorney General KK Venugopal, informed the Supreme Court yesterday that the process of appointment of a Lokpal is currently ongoing and a high-level meeting in this regard is going to be held next month.
Venugopal appeared before a bench headed by Justice Gogoi and told the apex court that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and leader of the single largest opposition party, Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge, will be meeting on 1 March for discussing appointment of anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal.
Hearing for this matter had come up after an NGO named Common Cause, represented by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appeared before the court seeking directions asking the Centre to implement last year’s Supreme Court order, under which the government’s arguments of the need to amend the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013 was rejected by the court.
The government had previously argued that the law had required participation of the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) as a member of the panel that appoints Lopkal. Since Congress party did not win even 10% of total seats in 2014 elections, which is required for it to be able to appoint an official LoP, the government had told the court that it needs to change the law.
But, since the court disagreed and said that law in its original form is still workable, the Centre is now going to appoint Congress party’s Mallikarjun Kharge on the panel that appoints the Lopkal as he is the leader of the single largest opposition party presently.