NEW DELHI: Anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal, which came into spotlight last week in the Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra case, has been functioning without a fulltime chairperson for over a year. According to a Right to Information (RTI) response dated November 3, the anti-corruption ombudsman has been headless after Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose demitted the office in May last year.
Moreover, three out of eight member posts are vacant, Moitra said while posting the screenshots of the RTI response on microblogging platform X. In March this year, the Lokpal came in for strong criticism from a Parliament committee for its non-performance and failure to fill the post of chairperson and other members.
According to Section 5 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, “The President shall take or cause to be taken all necessary steps for the appointment of a new Chairperson and Members at least three months before the expiry of the term of the Chairperson or Member, as the case may be, in accordance with the procedure laid down in this Act.”
Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, a judicial member of Lokpal, is currently the acting chairperson. The CBI initiated a preliminary enquiry against Moitra on Friday based on the directions of the Lokpal in an alleged cash-for-query case in Parliament to target the Adani group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had approached the Lokpal on October 21 with a complaint against the Trinamool leader over allegations of compromising national security by sharing her Parliament login credentials with unauthorised persons.
While the Lokpal has woken up from slumber in the Moitra case, it has been criticised across party lines.
The parliamentary panel on the Department of Personnel and Training headed by BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi said the body has not prosecuted a single person accused of graft to date and its performance seems to be far from satisfactory.
While the Lokpal Act was passed in 2013, the first Lokpal was appointed in 2019 with eight members. The panel said only three complaints were fully investigated and nearly 90% of the complaints were disposed of. The Lokpal is mandated to constitute a prosecution wing and an enquiry to prosecute guilty public servants. Both are yet to be constituted. The sanctioned strength of the Lokpal is 82 posts against which just 32 are in place.
COMMITTEE to find NEW HEAD IN PLACE
A parliamentary panel has taken a serious view of the details of steps taken to fill the vacancies of the chairperson and two judicial members, which have been vacant. The Centre has appointed Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson of a search com-mittee to recommend the chief, members of Lokpal in August