The Jan Lokpal Bill

Submitted by :
Rohit Kumar Singh
Roll no. 38
MHROD, Semester IV
 Introduction to Jan Lokpal Bill
The Jan Lokpal Bill is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by
prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a
Jan Lokpal

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court

Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan
(Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist).

Bill enactment aimed at creation of an effective deterrence

against corruption.

Supported by prominent member of society.

 Deficiencies in the present anti-corruption
systems
Anti Corruption System At Central Government
Level:
CVC
Departmental Vigilance
CBI
Central Vigilance Commission(CVC):
Lack of Adequate resources
Merely an advisory body
CVC cannot direct CBI to initiate enquiries against any officer of
the level of Joint Secretary and above on its own
CVC does not have powers to register criminal case
It does not have powers over politicians
 Deficiencies in the present anti-corruption
systems
It does not have any direct powers over departmental vigilance
wings
Appointments to CVC are directly under the control of ruling
political party

Departmental Vigilance Wings

officers in the vigilance wing of a department are from the
same department
In some departments, especially in the Ministries , some
officials double up as vigilance officials
It does not have the powers to register an FIR
They also do not have any powers against politicians
Deficiencies in the present anti-corruption
systems

CBI
Overburdened
Directly under the administrative control of Central
Government
 Salient Features of Jan Lokpal Bill
An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and
LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up.
They will be completely independent of the governments.
Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years
anymore
The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will
be recovered at the time of conviction.
Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers,
which will be given as compensation to the complainant.
Its members will be selected by judges, citizens and
constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a
completely transparent and participatory process.
 Salient Features of Jan Lokpal Bill

Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be

investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of

CBI will be merged into Lokpal.

It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those

who are being victimized for raising their voice against
corruption
Comparison of Government’s Lokpal Bill with
Civil Society’s Lokpal Bill
Government’s proposal Civil Society proposal
 Lokpal will not have any power to either  Lokpal will have powers to initiate
initiate action suo motu in any case or investigations suo moto in any case and also
even receive complaints of corruption to directly entertain complaints from the
from general public. The general public public. It will not need reference or
will make complaints to the speaker of permission from anyone to initiate
Lok Sabha or chairperson of Rajya investigation into any case.
Sabha. Only those complaints
forwarded by Speaker of Lok Sabha/  Lokpal is not an advisory body. It will have
Chairperson of Rajya Sabha to Lokpal the powers to initiate prosecution against
would be investigated by Lokpal any one after completion of investigations
in any case. It will also have powers to order
 Lokpal has been proposed to be an disciplinary proceedings against any
advisory body. Lokpal, after enquiry in government servant
any case, will forward its report to the
competent authority. The competent
authority will have final powers to
decide whether to take action on
Lokpal’s report or not
 Lokpal has not been given police powers.
Therefore Lokpal cannot register an FIR.
Therefore all the enquiries conducted by
Lokpal will tantamount to “preliminary
enquiries”.
 The bill does not say what will be the
role of CBI after this bill
 There is a strong punishment for
“frivolous” complaints. If any complaint
is found to be false and frivolous, Lokpal
will have the power to send the
complainant to jail through summary
trial but if the complaint were found to
be true, the Lokpal will not have the
power to send the corrupt politicians to
jail!
 Lokpal will have jurisdiction only on
MPs, ministers and PM. It will not have
jurisdiction over officers.
 Lokpal would have police powers. It will
be able to register FIR, proceed with
criminal investigations and launch
prosecution.
 That part of CBI, which deals with cases
of corruption, will be merged into
Lokpal so that there is just one effective
and independent body to take action
against corruption.
 Deterrence has been provided against
frivolous complaints in the form of
financial penalties against the
complainant, however, Lokayukta is
empowered to prosecute the corrupt and
take disciplinary action against them.
 Lokpal will have jurisdiction over
politicians, officials and judges. CVC and
the entire vigilance machinery of
government will be merged into Lokpal.
 Lokpal will have jurisdiction over
politicians, officials and judges. CVC and
the entire vigilance machinery of
government will be merged into Lokpal.
 The selection committee consists of Vice
President, PM, Leaders of both houses,
Leaders of opposition in both houses,
Law Minister and Home minister.
 Lokpal will not have powers to
investigate any case against PM, which
deals with foreign affairs, security and
defence.
 Whereas a time limit of six months to
one year has been prescribed for Lokpal
to enquire, however, subsequently, there
is no time limit prescribed for
completion of trial
 Lokpal would have ten members and
one Chairperson. Out of them four
need to have legal background (they
need not be judges). Others could be
from any background.
 Selection committee consists of
members from judicial background,
Chief Election Commissioner,
Comptroller and Auditor General of
India and international awardees (like
Nobel prize winners and Magsaysay
awardees of Indian origin). A detailed
transparent and participatory selection
process has been prescribed.
 There is no such bar on Lokpal’s
powers.
 Investigations should be completed
within one year. Trial should get over
within the next one year.
 It does not deal with corruption of  Lokpal will have power to direct
Bureaucrats. disciplinary action, including dismissal
of a corrupt officer from job.
 It does not talk of investigation of
complaints against judges.  Lokpal will have powers to initiate
investigations on complaints of
 Speaker would decide which complaints corruption against judges.
shall be enquired into by Lokpal.
 Lokpal will have the powers to orders
 Our entire governance system suffers redressal in a time bound manner. It
from inadequate public grievance will have powers to impose financial
redressal systems, which force people to penalties on guilty officers, which would
pay bribes. Lokpal bill does not address be paid to complainant as
this issue. compensation.

 Large number of people raising their  Lokpal will have powers to provide
voice against political corruption are protection against physical and
being professional victimization
Thank You