The Lokpal Bill-VI: Heavy is the head that wears the crown
Who should be in it? Who should stay out and why? T.R. Raghunandan continues with the next in his series of posts on the Lokpal Bill where he discusses the collegium for the selection of the Lokpal Bill.
While the next question we should be asking is who should comprise the collegium for the selection of the Lokpal and its members, the interesting point to note is that the definition contained in the Jan Lokpal Bill has already undergone considerable change, even while negotiations in the joint committee of government and civil society representatives are at an early stage.
A look at the table below will give you a clearer picture.
Jan Lokpal Bill |
Lokpal Bill 2010 (i.e., the govt version) |
||
version 1.8 |
version 2.1 |
version 2.2 (latest) |
|
The Chairpersons of both Houses of Parliament |
The Vice President of India (Chairperson) |
Prime Minister (Chairperson) |
The Vice President of India (Chairperson) |
|
Speaker of the Lok Sabha |
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha |
Prime Minister |
Two senior most judges of Supreme Court (The senior most to be chairperson of the selection committee) |
Two senior most judges of Supreme Court |
Two youngest judges of Supreme Court |
Speaker of the Lok Sabha |
Two senior most Chief Justices of High Courts. |
Two senior most Chief Justices of High Courts. |
Two youngest Chief Justices of High Courts. |
Union Home Minister |
Comptroller and Auditor General of India |
Comptroller and Auditor General of India |
Comptroller and Auditor General of India |
Union Law and Justice Minister |
Chief Election Commissioner |
Chief Election Commissioner |
Chief Election Commissioner |
Leader of the house other than that in which the PM is a member |
After the first set of selection process, the outgoing members and Chairperson of Lokpal. |
After the first set of selection process, the outgoing members and Chairperson of Lokpal. |
After the first set of selection process, the outgoing members and Chairperson of Lokpal. |
Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha |
Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission |
Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission |
|
Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha |
All Nobel Laureates of Indian Origin |
Retired army personnel who are five star generals |
|
|
Last two Magsaysay Award winners of Indian origin |
|
|
|
Bharat Ratna Award winners |
|
|
|
These stages in the evolution of the Jan Lokpal Bill are very interesting indeed. The initial effort to make the selection committee broad based and more of a people’s committee, by including the Nobel, Magsaysay and Bharat Ratna award winners has been given up.
An ex-officio committee currently
The committee now entirely comprises of ex-officio individuals. It is interesting to note that version 2.2 of the Jan Lokpal Bill suggests that the Prime Minister is the Chairperson, whereas the government version wants the Vice President to chair it. The replacement of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and Chief Justices of the High courts with the youngest, has a thought-provoking rationale, which was explained to the Round Table by Arvind Kejriwal, member of the Drafting Committee. He said that the view was that the representatives of the Judiciary on the Selection Committee should not be themselves in the zone of consideration, which is less likely if the senior-most judges as envisaged in the earlier versions were to be members of the selection committee.
Despite the revisions in the composition of the selection committee in the Jan Lokpal bill, the final version still shows considerable differences with the government bill. The latter has no place for constitutional functionaries or the judiciary in it.
Academics required
With this background in place, the discussion around the round table threw up diverse viewpoints. Madhu Kishwar’s view that the selection committee had a surfeit of judicial representation found favour with a number of participants. Their suggestion was that the selection committee should find place for eminent academics and other personalities, thus echoing the original idea behind the inclusion of Awardees.
I did not have a firm stand on this issue. I believe that once an individual reaches a position of the level of eminence so as to find a place on the committee, there is very little to choose between them. For instance, how should one choose between the Speaker, Prime Minister and the Vice president as being more suited to chair the committee?
In my view, perhaps, the preponderance of judicial representation could be diluted and two positions made available for eminent individuals of unimpeachable integrity, but otherwise I am in favour of supporting the selection committee as contained in version 2.2 of the Jan Lokpal Bill.
A novel idea
Another reason for my support of the current formulation is that the selection committee’s scope is considerably limited, because the bill provides for a Search Committee which is to do all the background work before placing the facts before the Selection Committee. The Search Committee is to be comprised of five former Comptroller and Auditor Generals and Chief Election Commissioners and five members of civil society. The search is through an advertisement and to be undertaken with complete transparency. Once names are available they are placed on a website and public feedback invited. The Search Committee is to recommend three times the names as there are vacancies to the selection committee.
To my mind, this is a novel approach and worth trying. Often, decisions on filling up regulatory posts are taken in secrecy and there is much manipulation and lobbying. Retired bureaucrats have a head start in the current system – the process suggested in the Jan Lokpal Bill will throw open the selection to public view. However, I can see the government being reluctant to accept these formulations, simply because they are far removed from current practice.
-T.R. Raghunandan
Do share your thoughts on the Lokpal Bill and its various components here.
Read the other posts in this series here:
The Lokpal Bill VII–Safety locks
The Lokpal Bill-V: The light must shine on us all
The Jan Lokpal Bill-IV: Questions we need to be asking
The Jan Lokpal Bill–III: Setting the Stage for Discussion
It’s a fast. Not blackmail.
Annaji and I