Can’t appoint Lokpal now: Govt tells SC

NEW DELHI: The government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it cannot appoint the anticorruption ombudsman – Lokpal – under the current legal framework, which the Attorney General submitted was an unworkable piece of legislation prepared by the UPA regime.

“Currently there is a problem with the law due to which selection of Lokpal cannot happen. In the absence of a leader of opposition (LoP) the appointment cannot be done,” country’s top law officer Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which reserved its verdict on petitions demanding implementation of the Act that provides for the ombudsman.

Amendments to the bill were pending before the Parliament to which judiciary cannot dictate and the hiring could happen only after they were cleared, he said. “I (government) cannot speak for the Parliament. Passage of a law is a parliamentary process and not judicial. Courts can test if after the law is frame,” Rohatgi argued.

The hiring of the Lokpal is held up on a technicality. The 2013 law stipulated the selection panel will be headed by the prime minister and will include the leader of the opposition, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, the chief justice of India and an eminent jurist.

But the present Lok Sabha does not have a leader of the opposition.

So, the government moved an amendment to the law to enable the leader of the single largest party to be part of the selection committee.

However, the opposition called for closer scrutiny of some other provisions the government included in the amendment. The tweaked bill then went to a parliamentary committee which gave its suggestions last year. The government is yet to make a decision on this.

During a hearing in November, a bench then headed by Chief Justice TS THakur (since retired) had hauled up the government for delay in appointing the country’s first anti-corruption ombudsman , asking why it was dragging its feet if it was so committed to cleansing corruption.”