In a turnaround from its earlier position, the government will have the leader of the single largest party in opposition to attend a meeting scheduled on March 1 to discuss the long-pending appointments to the powerful anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal.
In a brief hearing before a Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Friday, Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal said the scheduled meeting would have the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Justice of India and the single largest opposition party leader in attendance.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Common Cause, said the single largest opposition party leader was attending as a “special invitee”. Justice Gogoi asked the government to update the court in an affidavit on March 5. The Bench posted the next hearing for March 6.
The inclusion of the single largest opposition party leader is a significant development as the government has, for years, taken the position that Lokpal appointments could be made only after first amending the law to replace the Leader of Opposition (LoP) with the single largest party opposition leader on the high-level selection committee.
Under the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of 2013, the high-level selection committee for appointments to Lokpal comprises the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, the LoP, the Chief Justice of India and an eminent jurist chosen by them. The 16th Lok Sabha does not have an LoP as the Congress party failed to get the required 10 per cent membership.
However an April 2017 judgment by the Supreme Court did not buy the government's argument that an amendment in the provisions to replace the LoP with the single largest opposition party leader was necessary to get on with the Lokpal appointments.
The judgment authored by Justice Gogoi called the Lokpal Act of 2013 an “eminently workable legislation” in its present form itself.
Justice Gogoi observed that the 2013 Act, in its current form, provided enough room for the appointment of Lokpal Chairperson and Members even in the absence of a recognised LoP.
Justice Gogoi wrote that the government should honour its commitment to 'zero tolerance against corruption'. The judgment observed that an existing law cannot be put on hold merely because the Parliament was working on a better law.
But despite this judgment, no progress was made in the Lokpal appointments, which had prompted Common Cause to file a contempt petition
