The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Attorney General of India on a writ petition by advocate Ashok Pande and social activist Dr Nutan Thakur challenging the resolution issued by the Centre to constitute a committee on Lokpal Bill. The court asked the AG to appear before it to explain how and why the drafting committee for the Lokpal Bill was formed. The order was passed...

A lawyer today petitioned the Supreme Court to scrap the government notification on the joint committee for drawing up the Lok Pal Bill, saying the long-pending legislation couldn’t be “handed over to five people for redrafting”. The public interest petition came nine days after the government issued the April 9 notification announcing the panel of five ministers and five activists in a tactical compromise in the face of mushrooming support for...

For over a year, travelling to various parts of the country, activist and prime mover of the Jan Lokpal Bill, Arvind Kejriwal, has been repeating the same story over and over again, on the anti-corruption structures we have currently. Last month, at a huge gathering of RTI activists in Shillong, Meghalaya, he explained. “When an official acts as a whistle-blower and complains against his boss, a senior officer, the Central...

Anna Hazare’s group today released purported evidence that the audio CD implicating Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant was doctored, alleged government involvement and threatened to move the Supreme Court. The development threatens a fresh standoff between the Centre and the civil society members of the Lok Pal Bill drafting committee, which includes both the Bhushans. Prashant and fellow panel member Arvind Kejriwal said they had got the CD examined by two...

“There is a clear conspiracy on the part of some people which appears to have the blessings of many powerful people in the country” Barely a day after the first meeting of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill, the process has come under stress with the civil society members on the panel alleging a “clear conspiracy” to not only derail the anti-corruption movement but also to subvert the...