Lok Pal Proceedings To Be Open To Media

The proceedings of the Lok Pal will be open for media reporting, if the report of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, likely to be placed in Parliament on Friday, is accepted.

The issue had become controversial as the original bill made publication of proceedings a cognisable offence.

The committee has suggested that a panel of five, instead of seven, members should recommend appointment of the Lok Pal. These would be the vice-President, Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. The original bill included the home minister and the minister for personnel as the other two members.

The committee concluded that the seven members panel would mean the ruling partys dominance in the panel. This would erode the institutions credibility, one member said.

The committee also has concluded that the person to be appointed as the Lok Pal must have judicial experience. The draft stipulates that a candidate should be qualified to be a judge.

The committee accepted that all public functionaries, including the Prime Minister, should come under the purview of the Lok Pal, although it has taken a lenient view about the Lok Pals powers over government officials.

The Lok Pal can interrogate these officials while trying cases related to public functionaries, but it cannot entertain direct complaint against these officials, a committee member disclosed.

Most of the committees members privately objected to the committees decision to include public functionaries instead of public servants within the Lok Pals purview. The latter would have meant inclusion of government officials also, a member said. Government officials are involved in most corruption cases and thus no effort should be made to spare them, some of the members said. It is the connivance between corrupt and incompetent politicians and corrupt and competent officials that produce corruption, one member said.

It is reported that the committee was under tremendous pressure from government officials to exclude them. The Lok Pal should have the right to directly entertain complaints against government officials, the member contended.

The committee has also authorised the Lok Pal to take adequate action if the complaint filed is found to be baseless, a member said.

Most members exuded confidence that the Lok Pal bill would be passed in this Parliament session. This is the first time that the standing committee has unanimously recommended passage of the bill, a member said. Since all parties in the committee were in agreement about the changes that should be made in the Lok Pal bill, there would be no opposition to its passage, he contented.

Prominent among those who are members of the committee are Pranab Mukherjee, Ramjethmalani, Jagannath Mishra, SP Jain, SC Verma, Raj Babbar and Som Al, who is the chairman.

The committee members sat for four hours on Tuesday night to finalise the report.

The committee was set up on September 25, 1996 to study various aspects of the Lok Pal bill which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 13.