Supreme Court on Friday expressed disappointment over the slow pace of progress in the selection of Lokpal by the government. Later the Apex Court directed the Centre government to place on affidavit steps taken since September last year to set up a search committee for the Lokpal.
The Highest court asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to file the affidavit on the matter by January 17.
Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, ‘what all have you done till date. So much time is being taken’ when Attorney General asserted that many steps have been taken in the direction. When the attorney general reiterated that several steps have been taken, the bench directed to “bring everything on record what you have done since September 2018”.
Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan who was appeared for Common cause NGO said the Centre has not even made public the members of the search committee on its website.
The Top Court earlier on July last year rejected as “wholly unsatisfactory” the Centre’s submission on the issue of setting up of a search committee for the Lokpal and demanded a “better affidavit” within four weeks.
The direction had followed a submission by the attorney general that the selection committee members comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi had met on July 19 last year to deliberate upon names for members of the search committee.
As per the Court Directions, a search committee is to comprise a minimum of seven people (including the chairperson) with experience in anti-corruption policy, public administration, vigilance, policy making, finance including insurance and banking, law and management, etc.
Later the government had on September last year formed an 8 member search Committee comprising – former SC Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai (Chairperson of the Committee), former chief of State Bank of India (SBI) Arundhati Bhattacharya, former ISRO head A S Kiran Kumar, former Allahabad High Court Judge Sakha Ram Singh Yadav, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash, former Gujarat Police chief Shabbirhusein S Khandwawala, retired IAS officer (Rajasthan cadre) Lalit K Panwar, and former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar.
In the meanwhile, Social Activist Anna Hazare has threatened to launch a Protest on the issue from Jan 30.