Even after the Bill was passed for the appointment of Lokpal five years ago, Lokpal is yet to appointed. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court slammed the Centre for delaying the process.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi, and Navin Sinha ordered the Centre for filing another affidavit providing relevant details of the search committee for a Lokpal.
A meeting was held between the members of the selection committee constituting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist. Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the names for the search committee were not finalised in the meeting. Though he assured that in the next meeting the names will be finalised for the appointment of the search committee members.
The bench said that it is not satisfied with the Centre’s response and ordered that a fresh affidavit has to be filed in four weeks mentioning all the relevant details.
The contempt petition was filed by NGO Common Cause, which was represented by Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan in the court. Bhushan accused the Centre of delaying the appointment. He also said that the date of the next meeting has not been specified either.
As reported by the PTI, Bhushan said that “contempt action should be initiated against the concerned authorities or the court may proceed to appoint the Lokpal by exercising its power under Article 142 of the Constitution (enforcement of decrees and orders of Supreme Court).”
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha raised the issue of not appointing a Lokpal in the four years of Modi government.