PIL filed in HC

A PIL was today filed in the Madras
High Court bench here seeking a direction to declare as null and void the Search Committee Rules 2014 for the selection of the Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal on the ground that they were contrary to the Lokpal and Lokayutas Act.
The petitioner said the Chief Justice of India himself could not be the member of the selection committee and also one of the applicants for the Post of the Chairperson of the Lokpal.Such provision vitiated the selection process, it was contended.
A Division Bench of Justice V.Ramasubramanian and Justice V.M.Velumani ordered issue of notice to the Ministry of Personnel,Public Grievance,and Pensions, Selection Committee and Search Committee constituted under Section 4 of the Lokpal and Lokayutas Act 2013.

The petitioner submitted that the search committee (for recommending a panel of names for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal) rules were contrary to the act.
The Search Committee rules had been framed even though the Selection committee had not even been constituted on January17.The power of framing rules and regulations can be done only with the approval of the selection committee, the petitioner said, stressing the need for guidelines for selecting Chairperson and members of Lokpal.
The application forms issued by the Ministry of Personnel,Public Grievance,and Pensions,were ultra vires of Sec 4 of the Search committee rules, the petitioner, G.R.Swaminathan, an advocate, claimed.

The process of inviting applications itself was illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the scheme of the Lokpal Act, it was contended.