A dissection of Lokpal Bill (Government version)

In this post, my attempt is to show you, why and how weak the Government version of the Lokpal Bill is. This list is not exhaustive, however I hope to cover at least the very important clauses (THIRTEEN of them in no particular order), which would expose the double standards and lack of sincerity of our Government in tabling this bill. This post is also meant for those who would want to see the facts, before they believe it (have taken excerpts from the Bill, quoting the Section numbers); I hope I will save you the time, you would require otherwise.

At the end of the post, I hope you realize that, in its present shape, the Bill will serve no purpose. I hope all of you will scorn the fact that it just wont be able to stand the rotten scoundrels out there (which we are blessed with so many); and if you agree to this, do extend your support to this fight against corruption. This is perhaps our last and only chance!

Points to note:

1. I speak for no political party.
2. I am not a lawyer; and I cant say that I can understand any legal document perfectly. Nope! However, I have put in a genuine attempt, in the last two days, to go through all the relevant documents (links to which are available at the end of the post), and I can now say that I have a good understanding of these Bills.
3. It is my first time that I am going through such a piece of document; however, I found this particular Bill very interesting. Lots of loopholes and manholes and potholes and what not; the plot is so good; it is much more than what we see in movies! You wont believe that someone can go this low...

Point ONE:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter II: ESTABLISHMENT OF LOKPAL
Topic: Not specified
Section 3.(2)
The Lokpal shall consist of -
(a) a Chairperson; and
(b) ten Members, out of whom at least four shall be Judicial Members

Section 3.(3)
A person shall be eligible to be appointed, -
(a) as the Chairperson or a Member if he is a person of impeccable integrity, outstanding ability and standing having special knowledge of, and professional experience of not less than twenty-five years in, public affairs, administrative law and policy, academics, commerce and industry, law, finance or management;

In a totally unrelated development; the Government is planning to have the following ad in all leading dailies: "WANTED: Alive but dead; six rubber stamps for the vacancies of Lokpal members. Job Description below:" And as you guessed it right, that was the end of the ad as well - without any job description!!!

Point TWO:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter II: ESTABLISHMENT OF LOKPAL
Topic: Appointment of Chairperson and other Members and Selection Committee
Section 4.(1)
The Chairperson and Members shall be appointed by the President after obtaining the recommendations of a Selection Committee consisting of -
(a) the Prime Minister - Chairperson;
(b) the Speaker of the House of the People - member;
(c) the Leader of the House other than the House in which the Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament - member;
(d) the Minister in-charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Government of Inida - member;
(e) the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People - member;
(f) the Leader of the Opposition in the Council of States - member;

The list has four more members; anyway of the ten members, six are politicians! What an idea sirji! The politicans realize "United we stand; divided we fall!" Six of ten would ensure the majority for them during the selection process

Point THREE:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VII: PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION

Topic: Action on inquiry in relation to public servants not being ministers or Members of Parliament

Section 27.(1)
Where after the conclusion of the inquiry or investigation, the findings of Lokpal disclose the commission of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by a public servant referred to in clause (c) or (d) of sub-section (1) of section 17, the Lokpal may -
(b) recommend to the competent authority the initiation of disciplinary proceedings under the rules of disciplinary proceedings applicable to such public servant;

So who is the "competent authority" in this case?

Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter I: PRELIMINARY

Topic: Not Specified

Section 2.(1).(c)
"competent authority", in relation to -
(iii) an officer in the Ministry or Department of the Central Government means the Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department under which such officer is serving

The "competent authority" in this case is the concerned Minister. Continuing Point THREE; let us see what the Bill proposes for the recommendation from Lokpal.

Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VII: PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION

Topic: Action on inquiry in relation to public servants not being ministers or Members of Parliament

Section 27.(2)
The competent authority shall, within a period of thirty days of the receipt of recommendation under clause (b) of sub-section (1), initiate disciplinary proceedings against the delinquent public servant accused of committing offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and forward its comments on the report, including the action taken or proposed to be taken thereon, to the Lokpal ordinarily within six months of initiation of such disciplinary proceedings.

So what Point THREE says is that Lokpal can just send its recommendations; but it is up to the concerned Minister to decide the final action. The day is not long when we would see the Minister give the officer a pat on his back, for his impeccable track record of not having missed any opportunity to get bribe from the ordinary citizen!

Point FOUR:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VII: PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION
Topic: Action on inquiry in relation to public servants being ministers or Members of Parliament
Section 28.(1).(1)
Where after the conclusion of the inquiry or investigation, the findings of Lokpal disclose the commission of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by a public servant referred to in clause (a) or (b) of sub-section (1) of section 17, the Lokpal may -
(b) recommend to the competent authority the initiation of disciplinary proceedings under the rules of disciplinary proceedings applicable to such public servant;

So who is the "competent authority" in this case? 

Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter I: PRELIMINARY

Topic: Not Specified

Section 2.(1).(c)
"competent authority", in relation to -
(i) a member of the Council of Ministers, means the Prime Minister;
(ii) a member of the Parliament other than a Minister means the Council of States in the case of a member of that Council and the House of the People in the case of a member of that House;

The "competent authority" in this context is either the PM or the Council of States or the House of the People. Coming back to Point FOUR; let us see what the Bill proposes for the recommendation from Lokpal.

Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VII: PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION

Topic: Action on inquiry in relation to public servants being ministers or Members of Parliament

Section 28.(3)
The competent authority shall examine the report forwarded to it under sub-section (1) and communicate to the Lokpal, within a period of ninety days from the date of receipt of the report, the action taken or proposed to be taken on the basis of the report.

So what Point FOUR says is that Lokpal can just send its recommendations; but it is up to PM or the Council of States or the House of the People (as the case might be) shall decide the final action. I guess that would be some sort of performance appraisal, where they would be given feedback for their case history and also new targets for the next reporting period!

Point FIVE:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VI: JURISDICTION IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY

Topic: Jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Section 17.(1)

Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the Lokpal shall inquire into any matter involved in, or arising from, or connected with, any allegation of corruption by a public servant made in complaint in respect of the following, namely:-

(a) any person who is or has been a Minister of the Union other than the Prime Minister;

As per the Constitution, only President has immunity. The Prime Minister is not given any such special status; so why should that not be the case with the Lokpal Bill as well?

PM can be in-charge of any number of Ministries/ Departments; so as per this Bill, corruption in such Departments/ Ministries will be outside the purview of Lokpal. Why should this be the case? (FYI: Dr. Manmohan Singh is in charge of 4 Departments/ Ministries - Let us also not forget the recent scam regarding allocation of spectrum involving Department of Space)

So, as per Government, allegations against the PM will be investigated by CBI. However, CBI is not independent of the Government; the latter can highly influence CBI for sure, if not completely control! So should not PM be also brought under ambit of Lokpal?

Point SIX:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VI: JURISDICTION IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY

Topic: Jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Section 17.(1) contd. from Point FIVE

(c) any Group 'A' officer or equivalent or above, when serving or who has server, in connection with affairs of the Union;

The common man would basically be dealing with officials much below the rank of Group 'A' officer; so this would not bring about the desired intend.

Point SEVEN:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VI: JURISDICTION IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY

Topic: Jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Section 17.(1) contd. from Point SIX

(d) any director, manager, secretary, or other officer of every other society or association of persons or trust (whether registered under any law for the time being in force or not) wholly or partly financed by the Government or in receipt of any sums under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 or any donation from the public;

This would basically bring all NGOs and associations under the purview of the Lokpal, which is not bad at all. However, if this is possible, then it should also definitely be possible to bring all government staff under the purview of Lokpal (as practically it would be even more difficult to monitory and control all associations in India as compared to Government employees).

Point EIGHT:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter VI: JURISDICTION IN RESPECT OF INQUIRY

Topic: Jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Section 17.(1) contd. from Point SEVEN

Provided that the Lokpal shall not inquire into any matter involved in, or arising from, or connected with, any such allegation of corruption against any Member of either House of Parliament in respect of anything said or a vote given by him in Parliament or any committee thereof covered under the provisions contained in clause (2) of article 105 of the Constitution.

Let us not forget the recent cash-for-vote scam! As per this clause, such cases of corruption or bribe will not be under the purview of Lokpal. 

Point NINE:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Chapter XV: OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Topic: Prosecution for false complaint and payment of compensation, etc., to public servant.

Section 50.(1)

Not withstanding anything contained in this Act, whoever makes any false or frivolous or vexatious complaint under this Act shall, on conviction, be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but which may extend to five years and with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five thousand rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.

As per the clause, a compaint if proven false, the citizen will be served an imprisonment for a term of minimum two years. The reader should be informed that the guilty official would get an imprisonment for a term of minimum six months, if the complaint is proved to be true!

To add to these, are a few important points that have been excluded from the Bill.

Point TEN:
Topic: Protection to whistleblowers

The Bill does not empower the Lokpal to ensure protection of lives and wealth of the citizen who would make a complaint under the Act.

Point ELEVEN:
Topic: No mention of State Government

It is hard to understand how the State Government can be kept out from the purview of such a Bill. Maybe, after about sixty years of brilliance at the Centre (pun intended!) the Centre has finally decided to make 'Bribe' a State Subject! 

Point TWELVE:
Topic: Judicial Accountability

As per the Government, Judiciary will not be under the purview of Lokpal. The Government maintains that this would be covered by the Judicial Accountability Bill (JAB). However, looking at the track record of the Government, and statistically speaking, the percentage or probability for an effective Bill in those lines to come in near future is near - ZERO.

Point THIRTEEN:
Topic: Citizen Charter

The Bill mentions about a Citizen Charter for every Department/ Office, which would list who is responsible for every task and how quick it can be expected to be complete. However, the Bill does not talk about the penalties that can be imposed in case the Citizen Charter is not adhered to.

References:
Government Lokpal Bill (21st June, 2011 04:00 PM)
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988
Jan Lokpal Bill v2.2
India Against Corruption
IAC Trivandrum

Once again, humbly request your support for this fight against corruption. Thanks & Regards.