Lokpal Selection: SC Junks Prashant Bhushan’s Plea seeking names to be made Public submitted by Committee

The Apex Court on Thursday granted Central Government 10 days to inform the whereabouts of the meeting dates for the Selection Committee which is tasked to appoint the Members and Chairperson of the Lokpal.

The Top Court Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also dismissed the plea filed by the Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan that seeks SC’s Directions to Selection Committee to the public the proposed names of the Chairperson and Members of the Ombudsman.

The bench of the Supreme Court, led by CJI Gogoi, rejected a plea of Prashant Bhushan seeking direction to selection committee to make public the proposed names of Chairperson and members of the Lokpal https://t.co/pA7zyw95fd

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2019

The Search Committee headed by Justice Ranjana Desai that had on February last month invited applications, recommended three panels of each Chairperson, Judicial Members and Non-Judicial Members. The same names were put forward before the Top Court on Thursday by the Attorney General KK Venugopal.

Attorney General also submitted before the Court that it will as early as possible tell the Department of Training and Personnel (DoPT) to ensure meetings of Selection Committee to appoint Lokpal as soon as possible. The final call on the names will be made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led high powered panel.

The Central Government had in September last year constituted 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,
• Former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar

Earlier on January 4, the Top Court has asked the Centre Government to put on record the steps taken to appoint Lokpal. The Court had in January also expressed displeasure over the slow pace of the progress.

Earlier on February 6, The Search Committee for Lokpal headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai had invited applications for the appointment of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal.

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