Amendments Likely To Give More Teeth To Lok Pal
The Lok Pal bill may turn into a far more effective check on corruption if the amendments recommended by the standing committee on home affairs, tabled in Parliament yesterday, are incorporated in it. They include deletion of the provisions that an inquiry by the Lok Pal would lead to the cessation of all police investigations into a case, open trial instead of in-camera trial and allowing media comments and criticism.
As per the bill as it stands, the Lok Pal had the power to stop investigations being pursued by other government agencies, such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, on the ground that such investigations might prejudicially affect the conduct of inquiry in respect of complaints made to it. In the absence of this provision, the Union government could influence the Lok Pal to take up a case in order to stop inquiry conducted by the CBI into a particular case, one member privately admitted (not Sompal).
The provision, recommended in the report, that the head of the Lok Pal could be a retired chief justice of the Supreme Court and that its members should be judges of the Supreme Court or chief justices of high courts would also insure the institution against political influence, said committee chairman Sompal.
By suggesting that the vice-President should be made to chair a five-member committee instead of the Prime Minister, the committee has tried to reduce the say of the ruling party in the appointment of the proposed three-member Lok Pal. The committee holds that the seven member committee originally proposed seems to be heavily loaded in favour of the party\parties in government.
The report has suggested that, besides the vice-president and the Prime Minister, the five member committee should comprise the Lok Sabha Speaker and the leaders of the opposition in both houses of Parliament.
The draft bill wanted that the seven members should be Prime Minister (chairman), home minister, minister for personnel and public grievance, Lok Sabha speaker, deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, and the opposition leaders in both houses of parliament.
The committee has suggested that there should be three-member panel consisting of the Chief Justice of India and two other supreme Court judges to enquire into the reasons for the Lok Pals removal. The report says this has been done to make the removal procedure stringent. In the draft bill, the Chief Justice, or a judge nominated by him, could conduct the enquiry. This would make the process more democratic, broad-based and objective, claimed Sompal.
The committee rejected the idea of in camera inquiry suggested by the draft bill and strongly recommended that the inquiry should be open. The concept of in camera inquiry is not in consonance with the system of open court hearings currently prevalent in our country, the report said. The very nature of conducting proceedings or trials by the judicial or quasi-judicial organs in camera leads one to believe that truth is being shrouded in mystery, it added.
However, the committee has allowed the Lok Pal to conduct an in camera inquiry in exceptional circumstances for reasons that will have to be recorded in writing.
The report has also allowed media to comment on the judgment of the Lok Pal. The provision of the draft bill was too wide and may well be an unreasonable restriction on free speech, the report said. Sompal explained that media would be free to comment the way it does in relation to high court and supreme court judgments.
The report has also suggested that the Lok Pal would recommend its findings to the competent authority