10 things you need to know about Lokpal search panel row

The government's attempt to appoint Lokpal chairperson and members may not fructify due to impending announcement of Lok Sabha polls by Election Commission any time this week

In a major embarrassment to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, former Supreme Court judge K T Thomas has rejected a government offer to chair the committee tasked with short listing candidates for India's first anti-corruption ombudsman (Lokpal), saying the panel will not be able to conduct an "independent search" as it is mandated to pick names only from a government-drawn list.

 

It was a coincidence that Justice Thomas’s exit came a day after the Union Cabinet had to discard its plans to promulgate some anti-graft ordinances after President Pranab Mukherjee signalled his unwillingness to go along with the move to bypass the legitimate way to pass these laws — through Parliament.

 

Justice Thomas's refusal, which comes just three days after eminent jurist Fali S Nariman opted out of the search committee, also casts a shadow over the government's hurried attempts to have the Lokpal in office before the country goes to polls. The Election Commission is likely to announce the general election dates later this week. At present, it seems that it is the end of the strategy orchestrated by the Congress to help the party establish its commitment to fighting corruption.

 

Here is a refresher on the entire Lokpal search panel controversy 

. 1) The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 provides for establishment of a Lokpal for the Union and Lokayuktas for the states to inquire into corruption charges against public functionaries.

. 2) The Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and four judicial and four non-judicial members. According to the Lokpal Act, the chairperson and members shall be appointed by the President on the basis of recommendations of the selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of Opposition in the House, the Chief Justice of India and an eminent jurist.

. 3) For selecting the chairperson and the members, the selection committee shall constitute a search panel of at least eight persons.

. 4) Under the Lokpal Act of 2013, the DoPT is supposed to put together a list of candidates interested to be chairperson or members of the Lokpal. This list would then go to the proposed eight-member search committee, which would shortlist names and place them before the selection panel headed by the Prime Minister. The selection panel may or may not pick names suggested by the search committee.

. 5) On February 20, the selection committee — comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Supreme Court Judge H L Dattu, who is the nominee of the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Jurist P P Rao — unanimously selected Justice Thomas to lead the eight-member search committee to select the names for various posts of Lokpal. Thomas was a judge in the apex court between 1996 and 2002.

. 6) The other members chosen for the search committee are eminent jurist and senior advocate Fali S Nariman, former Chief Election Commissioner, S Y Quraishi, principal of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, Meenakshi Gopinath,  educationist Mrinal Miri, former Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Kaki Madhava Rao and senior journalist and Rajya Sabha Member H K Dua.

. 7) On February 28, Nariman refused to be part of the search committee, saying he fears that the multi- layered procedure could overlook the most competent, independent and courageous persons. The government had offered him to be a part of the search committee on February 21. Nariman, in his letter to Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanaswamy, slammed the Lokpal selection process as well.

. 8) This committee will scrutinise over 300 applications received for the post of chairperson and eight members and forward the names to the selection committee. The chairperson can be a serving or former Chief Justice of India, a sitting or former judge of the Supreme Court or a person of impeccable integrity and outstanding ability.

. 9) Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has criticised the Centre for diluting the role of Selection and Search Committees for Lokpal. He wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh objecting to the advertisement put out by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) inviting applications from aspiring members.

. 10) In February, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj objected to the choice of P P Rao as the fifth member of the search panel, saying the jurist was a Congress loyalist.