New Delhi:
The selection of India's first Lokpal, or anti-corruption ombudsman, has been left to the next government. The Centre today told the Supreme Court that the government is not appointing a Lokpal now and no meeting is scheduled either.
The court was hearing a petition challenging the Lokpal selection process.
A meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee headed by the Prime Minister, which was to take key decisions, was cancelled in March.
The process to appoint members to the anti-corruption body took a major blow when two members - Justice KT Thomas and noted jurist Fali Nariman - quit the panel in March.
In the two-tier Lokpal selection process, the search committee has to shortlist candidates for the anti-corruption body, which are finally cleared by the Selection Committee.
Justice Thomas, who was to head the search panel, said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that the committee "cannot make any independent search to find out the most deserving persons" but has to choose from candidates submitted by the central government. He questioned the need for a search panel whose recommendations could be vetoed by the selection committee.
To replace these members, the selection committee was to meet, but it never took place. The Selection Committee comprises the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, the Lok Sabha Speaker, a representative of the Chief Justice of India and an eminent jurist.
The Selection Committee also took off on a note of discord with BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of Opposition in the current Lok Sabha, strongly opposing the Prime Minister's choice of PP Rao as a jurist for the panel.