Lokpal Search Committee Invites Applications For Preparation Of Panel Of Names For Consideration For Appointment As Chairperson & Members

Following a deadline fixed by the apex court, the Lokpal Search Committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai has invited applications/nominations for preparation of panel of names for consideration by Selection Committee as appointment as Chairperson and Members of Lokpal.

To be eligible for appointment as Chairperson, the applicant must have been a Chief Justice of India, or a judge of Supreme Court or an eminent person having special knowledge and expertise of not less than twenty five years in the matters of anti-corruption policy, public administration, vigilance, finance, law and management.

To be eligible for appointment as Judicial Member of Lokpal, the applicant must have been a judge of Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of High Court. 

Eminent persons having special knowledge and expertise of not less than twenty five years in the matters of anti-corruption policy, public administration, vigilance, finance, law and management are eligible to be appointed as other members of Lokpal.

The applications are to be submitted on or before February 22.

On January 17, the SC had fixed a February-end deadline for the search committee on Lokpal to recommend a panel of names for appointment of the country's first anti-graft ombudsman.The top court had on July 24 last year rejected as "wholly unsatisfactory" the Centre's submission on the issue of setting up of a search committee for the Lokpal and demanded a "better affidavit".

The apex court was also told that the selection committee members comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then CJI Dipak Misra, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi had met on July 19 last year to deliberate upon names for members of the search committee. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the leader of the largest opposition party, has been giving a go by to the meetings of the selection panel.

The top court on July 24 last year was told that the selection panel also took note that the search committee is to comprise a minimum of seven people, including chairperson, with experience in anti-corruption policy, public administration, vigilance, policy making, finance including insurance and banking, law and management, etc.

The Centre on September 27, 2018 had constituted an eight-member search committee headed by Justice Desai to recommend names to the selection panel for appointment of a Lokpal.

Other members of the search committee are former chief of State Bank of India Arundhati Bhattacharya, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash, Indian Space Research Organisation head A S Kiran Kumar, former judge of Allahabad High Court Sakha Ram Singh Yadav, former Gujarat Police head Shabbirhusein S Khandwawala, retired IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre Lalit K Panwar, and former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar.

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