Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose appointed first Lokpal

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 19

Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose – a retired judge of the Supreme Court -- was on Tuesday appointed as India's first anti-corruption ombudsman – Lokpal.

Enacted in 2013, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act received Presidential assent on January 1, 2014 and came into force on January 16, 2014. However, it has taken more than five years to appoint the Lokpal.

Justice Dilip B Bhosale, Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Justice Abhilasha Kumari and Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi will be the judicial members of the Lokpal, it was officially announced.

Justice Bhosale is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court while Justice Mohanty is a former Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Justice Kumari -- a former Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court -- is the daughter of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Justice Tripathi is the serving Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

Former Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) chief Archana Ramasundaram, ex-Maharashtra Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, Mahender Singh and Indrajeet Prasad Gautam are the non-judicial members appointed to the Lokpal.

The names were recommended for appointment by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee and approved by President Ram Nath Kovind. Other members on the selection panel are the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha is supposed to be on the panel but since no party has the requisite number in the Lok Sabha, the Government had requested Congress leader in the House to attend the meeting. However, Mallikarjun Kharge had boycotted the meeting.

A Search Committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai had forwarded three panels of names for chairperson, judicial members and non-judicial members to the selection committee earlier this month.

The appointments came after the Supreme Court – acting on a PIL filed by Common Cause -- nudged the government to expedite the process of appointing the Lokpal and its members.

Accusing the government of dilly-dallying, Common Cause had moved a contempt plea against the government for its failure to appoint the Lokpal despite the court’s direction.

In its April 27, 2017 verdict, the Supreme Court had termed the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, an eminently workable piece of legislation which “does not create any bar to the enforcement of the provisions”.

There was no justification to keep the enforcement of the Lokpal Act suspended till the proposed amendments, including on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, were cleared by Parliament, it had said.