Cabinet nod to Lok Pal Bill

Three months after civil society initiated a movement for a strong Lokpal Bill, the Cabinet today approved a draft that keeps out most recommendations of team Anna Hazare. 

While the government said it would table the Bill in Parliament when the session begins next month, Hazare has announced his intent to again go on an indefinite hunger strike from August 16. 

The Bill will be introduced in Parliament in the first two days of the monsoon session. 

The Bill approved is a cruel joke and the government has cheated those who believed it intended to come out with a legislation that would stop corruption, said Prashant Bhushan, member of the Hazare team. 

Law minister Salman Khurshid said 34 of the 40 principles suggested by Hazare’s team were accepted. Asked why the latter’s draft was not placed before the Cabinet, he said “all members knew what they (Hazare’s lot) wanted”. 

The Bill, besides keeping the prime minister out of the purview of the Lokpal during the former’s term, also excludes the higher judiciary and the conduct of MPs in Parliament. 

Structure, powers

The proposed Lokpal would consist of a chairperson and eight members, half of them judicial. It will have its own prosecution and investigation wing. While the Chairperson would be an incumbent or former Chief Justice of India, the members would include former or sitting judges of the Supreme Court or Chief Justices of high courts, said Khurshid. 

It can investigate charges of corruption against a prime Minister only after he demits office. It could take up corruption matters allegedly involving ministers, MPs, Group ‘A’ officers and others equivalent to this grade in any body, board, authority, corporation, trust, society or autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. 

The Lokpal would not require sanction or approval under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, in cases where prosecution is proposed. 

The Lokpal will also have powers to attach the property of corrupt public servants acquired through corrupt means. 

There would be a nine-member selection panel, headed by the prime minister. It would include the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the leaders of opposition of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, one minister and eminent jurists. 

The Lokpal would have a five-year tenure. It would not have the power to independently prosecute. It could recommend prosecution to the Supreme Court, he said. 

Critics

The Bill, as approved by the Cabinet, also does not include the Lokayukta component suggested by civil society. This would have necessitated states to make strong Lokayukta Bills, thus bringing the government functionaries in states under the ambit of such an ombudsman. 

At present, 17 states have Lokayuktas, with Karnataka’s the strongest, though it cannot pursue a corruption case in court beyond filing a report. However, note members of Hazare’s movement, the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta this week has led to the fall of the state chief minister.

Five of the nine members in the Lokpal selection authority are from the government. The government has also not agreed to keep the Central Bureau of Investigation under the Lokpal. 

Arvind Kejriwal, another Hazare team member, said the Bill would mean an institution unable to do anything about the corruption in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, apart from bigger scams like the Commonwealth Games or telecom spectrum. 

On Thursday’s meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pressed that his office be included in the Lokpal’s ambit, but the Cabinet decided otherwise, information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters after the meeting.