Eight days after Gandhian Anna Hazare called off his fast demanding a stronger Lokpal law, the joint committee to draft the bill met on Saturday for the first time amid a controversy over a CD allegedly involving eminent lawyer and panel co-chairman Shanti Bhushan. The meeting chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was held at North Block and attended by Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, M Veerappa Moily and Salman Khurshid...

“ I've never had any conversation with Mulayam, Amar Singh” ‘Bid to discredit committee constituted to draft lokpal bill' Case registered under Section 469 of IPC The Delhi police have registered a case against an unknown person for allegedly fabricating a defamatory telephonic conversation between Shanti Bhushan, former Law Minister and now co-chairman of the joint committee to draft the lokpal bill, and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh and its former general secretary...

Speculation on whether contents are intended to tarnish his and his son's image CD released prior to first meeting of joint committee on lokpal bill Circulation comes before Supreme Court verdict in Amar Singh tapes case The surreptitious surfacing of a compact disc containing an alleged phone conversation between senior advocate Shanti Bhushan; the former Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh; and the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has raised...

Social activist Anna Hazare has cash assets worth Rs.68,688.36. He owns 0.07 hectares of family land in Ralegan Siddhi which is being used by his family. Two other pieces of land donated to him by the Army and by a villager have been donated by him for village use. This is all that Mr. Hazare, who lives in a temple in Ralegan Siddhi, a model village, owns. Sent to chairman The assets of...

The draft bill seeks to create an institution that will be independent of those it seeks to police, and will have powers to investigate and prosecute all public servants, and others found guilty of corrupting them. A number of commentators have raised issues about the provisions in the draft of the Jan lokpal bill. They have asked whether it would be an effective instrument to check corruption. They have pointed to...