The Hindu : Cabinet clears new Lok Pal Bill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 29, 2003

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Cabinet clears new Lok Pal Bill

By Our special Correspondent

New Delhi June 28. The Union Cabinet has once again decided to put in place a Lok Pal regime, intended to check corruption in high places.

The office of Prime Minister has also been brought under the jurisdiction of the proposed Lok Pal. The Government would try to get the proposal passed in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting this evening presided over by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajapayee.

The Cabinet decided to incorporate the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs on the Lok Pal Bill, 2001 (introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 14, 2001).

The Standing Committee presented its report to the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman on December 31, 2001; and, the report itself was laid on the table of the House on February 26, 2002.

Like its many predecessors, the Vajpayee Government too has intermittently sought to mobilise parliamentary support for an anti-corruption institutional watchdog. In fact, the first time a Lok Pal Bill was introduced was as early as 1969; since then, six more attempts were made, and each legislative initiative was allowed to lapse, invariably with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

The Bill approved today is said to retain most of the key features of the 2001 legislative proposal — selection by a committee consisting of the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Home Minister, and the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha (in case the Prime Minister is from the Lok Sabha), and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Similarly, the proposed law keeps intact the provisions intended to secure the independence and autonomy of the Lok Pal: no incumbent ombudsman would be removed except after an inquiry made by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India and two seniormost judges of the Supreme Court.

Opinion among political parties has been divided on the desirability of bringing the office of the Prime Minister within the purview of the Lok Pal.

According to Sushma Swaraj, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs who briefed the media, the National Commission for the Review of the Working of the Constitution was against the inclusion of the Prime Minister.

However, a group of Ministers, headed by L.K. Advani, which examined the Commission report, was of the view that the Prime Minister should come under the ombudsman's scrutiny.

The Standing Committee, too, suggested that the Prime Minister ``may be included.''

Ms. Swaraj was unwilling to give more details, as the Lok Sabha has already been summoned to meet on July 21 and hence the parliamentarians had the first right on the details.

However, she did indicate that the Government had decided to craft a mere statutory status — rather than constitutional sanctity — for the proposed Lok Pal. Now the Government can hope to get it passed as an ordinary piece of legislation.

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