The Government has constituted a committee chaired by the Attorney General to recommend amendments to the lokpal search panel rules framed by the erstwhile UPA-II Government.
The Search Committee (Constitution, Terms and Conditions of Appointment of Members and the Manner of Selection of Panel of Names for Appointment of Chairperson and Members of lokpal) Rules 2014 had come under attack during the UPA regime after the Chairperson of the panel former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas resigned after learning that the rules did not allow the panel to apply its mind independent of the names forwarded by the Centre.
The present committee under Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi will seek to rid the old rules of any limitation that restricted the Chairman and members of the panel to be constricted in choosing effective and independent persons to head the anti-corruption watchdog. Once the recommendations are received, the Centre will be in a position to go put in place a lokpal and other members.
Incidentally, The lokpal rules were even challenged in a PIl before the Supreme Court. In May this year, days before the UPA Government’s tenure ended, the Centre had decided to drop controversial clauses in the rules. One of it involved giving the panel full discretion to recommend names of even those eminent persons who had not applied for the posts.
It justified it by saying, “It is felt that it may be possible that many eminent persons, including Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, may have reservations in submitting their applications to DoPT, particularly having regard to the pre-eminence of the positions held by them”, said a note written by the then Minister V Narayanasamy.
The change of heart came pursuant to senior advocate Fali Nariman pointing out the glitches in the Rules when he was offered to become a member of the lokpal Search Panel. The BJP, which was then in Opposition, used this issue to stall the process.As per the existing rules, an eight-member search panel is tasked to draw up a panel of persons for consideration by the selection committee led by the Prime Minister for appointment of chairperson and members of the lokpal. The search panel has to choose these persons from among the panel provided by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the rules say.