The Lokpal is a proposed body to
be enacted as a law by Parliament, which will be headed by a chairperson who is
or was a Chief Justice of India and eight other members.
The
first lokpal bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969 but could not
get through in Rajya Sabha,
subsequently, Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971,
1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008,
yet they were never passed. Th lokpal
bill was visualised as the watchdog institution or
ministerial probity. Broadly the provisions of different bills empowered the Lokpal to investigate corruption cases against political
persons at the central level.
Main objective of the bill is to provide speedy, cheaper
form of justice to people.
In the proposed system lokpal will
have complete powers to dismiss a corrupt official.
Lokpal will have powers to probe or
prosecute any judge, even CJI, without any permission while in present scenario
CJI permission is required even to register FIR against any judge.
Also, in the proposed system, politicians will not have any
say in selections of chairperson and members of lokpal.
Loss caused to government will be recovered from accused.
The punishment if found guilty will be 5 years to maximum
life term in the proposed system.
Right now the punishment is 6 months to maximum 7 years.
For setting up an independent Lokpal,
simultaneous measures to strengthen the legal and administrative framework
against corruption are required. These include:
(1)
Setting up of a National Judicial Commission to bring the conduct of judiciary
under its purview
(2)
Law to protect citizens charter for redressal of public grievances
(3)
Amendment of Article 105 of the Constitution to
bring MPs under anti-corruption scrutiny
(4)
Electoral reforms to check money power in elections
(5)
Setting up of Lok Ayuktas
in the states to cover all public servants at the state-level
(6)
Steps to unearth black money and confiscate the funds illegally stashed away in
tax havens.