Govt. will be forced to appoint Lokpal now: Prashant Bhushan

After the Supreme Court held that there is no justification to put appointment of the Lokpal on hold, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Thursday said the government will be forced to appoint the Act now.

Welcoming the judgment, Bhushan told ANI, "For three years this Lokpal Bill has been on force and unfortunately this has not been effectuated, no Lokpal has been appointed and the government has been making this silly excuses particularly that there is no leader of opposition because the Congress doesn't have enough seats etc. finally the Supreme Court has rejected all the excuses and said that there is no reason why the Lokpal cannot be appointed right now."

 

The apex court earlier in the day asked the Central Government to implement the Lokpal Act, while saying that there is no justification for holding it in abeyance.

The apex court passed the judgment while hearing a plea filed by an NGO, Common Cause.

The apex court had earlier slammed the Central government for not appointing the Lokpal in an expeditious manner.

Appearing for the NGO, Common Cause, senior apex court lawyer and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan had argued that that though the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, received Presidential assent on January 1, 2014, and came into force from January 16, 2014, Lokpal is not being appointed by the Central government deliberately.

Earlier this month, Congress leader K.C. Venugopal filed a privilege notice against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, accusing him of misguiding on the Lokpal bill that is pending with the standing committee in the Lok Sabha.

Earlier on March 23, the opposition unleashed a stinging attack on the government over the delay in appointment of the Lokpal, a day after it informed the Supreme Court that the anti-corruption ombudsman cannot be appointed without amending a law.

However, Jaitley intervened and said the required amendment in the law was being considered by the parliamentary standing committee concerned.