LOKPAL BILL, a journey to nowhere since 40 years, was launched by Sh Jayapraksh Narayan to eradicate corruption in our society.
The administrative committee (ARC) recommended in October 1966 the institution of office of a Lokpal at centre and Lokayukta in the states with wide statuary power.
The bill was 1st introduced in parliament in 1968 to the then Prime minister Smt Indira Gandhi and thereafter it was reintroduced to the prime minister in succession Sh Morarji Desai, Sh Rajiv Gandhi, Sh V P singh, Sh Devegoda and to Sh Atal Bihari Vajpai. Each time bill either lapsed or the format of the bill was changed purposefully to exclude prime minister and MPs.
Enactment of this bill was initially thought of eradicating/or dealing the cancerous disease which has spread to the nation as a whole. Though it was never thought to be a magic wand but law once passed and implemented in its actual form has enough teeth to curb this disease by more than 95%.
Sh Anna Hazare has a strong belief of if bill passed, as it was on the floor of 1977 loksabha, will become an effective tool to get rid of corruption from our society.
Bills of 1971 empowered the Lokpal to enquire into both a Grievance and an Allegation.
Grievance:-was defined as a claim by a person that he had sustained injustice or hardship in consequence of maladministration.
Allegation:-covered not only corruption or lack of integrity but also abuse of public office to secure gain or to cause harm or hardship to another.
The bill which was further produced in 1977 included a wide definition of Misconduct whereby if any one in public directly or indirectly allows his position to give undue favour to anyone or his known or causes harm or hardship to another are liable to be questioned, investigated and punished.
Thus the 1977 bill includes even Prime minister whereas bill of 1971 was excluding PM. Under it, the government would have no power to prevent an investigation or inquiry from being held if required by any person. It would have no hand in selection of judges and investigating agency.
In a simple word, the bill was empowering any person to make a complaint of misconduct to the governor against a present or past holder of any of the offices specified.
The 1977 Lokpal bill was headed by Sh Shyam Nandan Mishra the then famous foreign minister. JPC found its provision too wide and rejected stating that since MPs do not exercise any executive powers they should not be treated at par with public men exercising such power therefore the concept of misconduct must be different for them.
The bill lapsed on the dissolution of Loksabha in July 1985 and format was amended by then law minister Sh AK Sen when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime minister. It has been restricted only to the criminal offence of bribery under Indian penal code or the prevention of corruption act 1947.
1985 amended bill read as no prosecution shall lie on any complaint, report, information or otherwise and no court shall take cognisance of any offence on the basis of the same or substantially the same allegations in the complaint.
In other words Lokpal probe would bar prosecution in the courts. The lokpal has no power to award punishment at all. It can do no more than report to a Prime minister or union minister. However in its original format includes all the public man i.ePM to MPs,all the government officials for their misconduct and lokpal was empowered to investigate and punish.
The exact replica of amended bill of 1985 format was produced to successive Lok sabha there on during VP Singh, HD Deve goda, and Atal Bihari Bajpai government whereby if passed an anaemic Lokpal could do no more than report to the prime minister, while ousting the court jurisdiction effectively by a parallel judiciary of sorts.
For an effective Lokpal, The selected person must
Have Jurisdiction in respect of both maladministration and misconduct,
Be a former judge of the Supreme Court or a former chief justice of High court,
Have a jurisdiction over a wide range of public man (PM, MPs senior civil servants so on)
Have its independent investigating agency not to be dependent on CBI.
Have the power to launch prosecutions himself and order vacating of office
It would be best to mend constitution to give him constitutional status comparable to that of CAG.
Sh Anna Hazare to Baba Ram dev along with million of people have ignited a fire in each heart of our citizen. Now those involved in corruption have started sensing heat of the flame which may be in nascent stage today but fire will be seen soon.
Lokpal bill which has seen many prime ministers in its journey seems to reach to its final destination in one or two years. And that day will be marked as another day of freedom in sovereign India.
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