Under fire from Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, the Arvind Kejriwal Government on Friday passed the Delhi Jan lokpal Bill 2015 with five amendments in the original Bill in the Delhi Assembly.
The amendments deal with the selection and removal of the lokpal. While the ‘diluted’ form of the Bill suggested just four members in the lokpal selection committee, with Delhi CM, the Assembly Speaker, leader of Opposition in the Assembly and the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, the amended Bill said there would be three additional members. The new members will include another judge from the Delhi High Court, any eminent personality selected the rest of the committee members and the lokpal Chairman from the next term. For removal of lokpal, there would be a High Court enquiry first before referring the matter to the Delhi Assembly, where two-thirds of the Delhi Assembly can vote to remove the lokpal.
However, in the 2011 Bill, a lokpal could be removed only after being found guilty of wrongdoing by courts and a presidential clearance. The Bill has no prior approval from Centre. While the lieutenant Governor will have no role in selection of the three-member Jan lokpal. The proposed has made it amply clear that the recommendations of the selection committee will be binding on the l-G who shall make the concerned appointments to the Jan lokpal no later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the recommendations of the selection committee.
The Bill has made it clear that convicted public servants can even face life imprisonment in corruption cases. Also, the Bill will give teeth to the anti-corruption watchdog to ensure that all employees and their dependants of the Delhi Government, the DDA, the municipal bodies and the Delhi Police file details of their assets every year.
“This Bill will put both Central and State under same lens and will show the corrupt their real place. In this Bill, whistleblowers will also be given protection. lokpal will be an independent prosecution agency; it will be time-bound where decision on each case will be reached within six months. People of this country are very mature. They saw that we had clear intentions and voted for us thus giving us 28 seats. When they saw that other Governments were not letting Jan lokpal Bill to pass, they voted us to power with 67 MlAs,” said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
The Bill stated that people who have not been a judge of the Supreme Court or Chief Justice or Judge of any High Court cannot be appointed as the chairperson of the Jan lokpal. The Bill stated that chairperson or member of the Jan lokpal shall not be a MP or MlA and shall not hold any other office of profit or be connected with any political party. The term of the chairman and the members of the Jan lokpal will be for a period of five years. The chairperson and members of the Jan lokpal cannot be removed from their office except by an order of the l-Gr passed after an address by the legislative Assembly supported by two-third majority of the House.
A copy of the financial memorandum, signed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the proposed Bill does not involve any additional financial assistance from the Central Government through substantive expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of the NCT of Delhi.
The proposed Bill will empower the Jan lokpal to appoint or with the consent of the Government designate officers or agencies as Investigation Officers, authorised to investigate offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Called Jan lokpal Investigation Officers, they will be having powers which are vested in a police officer for investigating offences under the Cr.PC.
The time-frame for completion of investigation for Jan lokpal Officers has been fixed for a period of up to six months. The Bill said the Jan lokpal shall also constitute a prosecution wing and appoint a director of prosecution and such other officers and employees to assist the director prosecution for the prosecution of public servants in relation to any complaint made under the Act.
On the quantum of punishment, the Bill said any person convicted shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months and may extend up to 10 years and may, and in rearest of rate cases, extend up to imprisonment for life for special reasons to be recorded in writing and with fine. The Bill has specified that the Government, may in consultation, with the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, constitute such number of special courts, as recommended by the Jan lokpal to hear and decide the cases arising out of the PCA.
To maintain secrecy of information, the Bill stated that any information obtained by Jan lokpal or members of their staff in the course of or for the purposes of Investigation under the Act, and any evidence recorded or collected in connection with such information shall be treated as confidential and notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872), no court shall be entitled to compel Jan lokpal or any public functionary to give evidence relating to such information or produce the evidence so reported or collected.