The parliamentary standing committee on law and justice is veering around to recommending exclusion of lower bureaucracy from the purview of the proposed Lokpal and facilitating setting up of powerful Lokayuktas in all states. While the panel is likely to endorse the government's bill on the basic structure of the Lokpal, including exclusion of lower bureaucracy, higher judiciary, citizen's charter and allowing PM with certain safeguards, it may also recommend that...

On August 27, Parliament should have passed a resolution on the Lokpal issue in the established manner. The so-called ‘Sense of the House' resolution was a perplexing move. After the failure of discussions between members of a committee comprising Union Ministers and the civil society team, Anna Hazare declared on July 29, 2011 that if the government did not act on the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the team by August...

“Synergy” and “mutual relationship” will be the key phrases as the CBI tells the Standing Committee of Parliament in a forthcoming presentation about its decision to come on board the Lokpal. In his presentation, CBI director A P Singh is expected to demand greater functional autonomy and treatment as an “equal partner”, not as a subordinate agency of the Lokpal. The agency is also expected to argue for its director — who...

Is the Bill within the legislative competence of Parliament? Yes. All provisions in Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill are within the legislative competence of Parliament, including the provisions relating to Lokayuktas in the States. Some confusion is being spread in the media that Parliament cannot enact all the provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill, particularly those relating to the Lokayuktas in the States, a law for which will have to be...

-The Times of India   The Anna Hazare-led civil society movement cannot be faulted for having come up with its version of the Lokpal Bill, because otherwise it would have been accused of campaigning for something essentially negative - the withdrawal of the flawed government version without putting forward an alternative. Frustration with everyday corruption - as well as the spectacular kind that explodes in the public sphere ever so often (...