The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its disappointment over the Centre for not appointing Lokpal despite Parliament enacting a law in this regard in January 2014.
While the Centre said that the amendment bill is pending in Parliament to include the leader of largest opposition party, a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said that Parliament, by not amending the law, cannot frustrate the mandate for appointment of Lokpal.
The bench asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi as to why the court can't pass an order to include the leader of largest opposition party in the selection committee.
Rohtagi told the bench that any order by the court in the present situation would amount to judicial legislation.
Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan appearing for an NGO, Common Cause, said that the Lokpal Bill has been passed after a long struggle and alleged that the government is not doing anything.
We don’t have Lokpal even today, despite the Act being notified in 2014. Even jurist has not been appointed and the will of people is being frustrated. Do you require another Anna andolan?Shanti Bhusan
He said that the apex court has to interpret the Lokpal Act to recognise the leader of the largest opposition party as the leader of the opposition (LoP).
Rohatgi said that as per the provisions, the largest opposition party has to have a certain number of MPs in Parliament to claim the post of the leader of the opposition.
He said therefore, the government is amending the Act to include the leader of the largest opposition party in the selection committee for appointment of Lokpal.
The apex court said that the LoP is “dispensable and things can proceed without the LoP”. If there is no LoP, then leader of the largest opposition party can be included in the selection committee, it said.
The senior advocate, while replying to the AG's contention that asking Parliament to pass the amendment bill would amount to judicial legislation, said that the court is not interfering with the functioning of the House.
On 9 May, the apex court had sought to know from the Centre what steps had been taken for the appointment of Lokpal as per the amended rules.
The NGO in its plea filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan also sought a direction to the Centre to ensure that the procedure for selecting the chairperson and members of Lokpal must be transparent as envisaged under the Act.
“The inaction of the government in making the appointment of Lokpal is arbitrary and unreasonable and hence, violative of Article 14 of the Constitution,” the amended petition of the NGO had said.
It had also said that one of the ways to ensure total transparency in the selection process is that the panel of persons to be prepared by the search committee for consideration by the selection committee must be placed in public domain.
(With inputs from PTI)