Major loopholes of Lokpal Bill

Terming the government's draft on Lokpal Bill an eyewash, the civil society has accused that it will "patronize" corruption and demanded it should be withdrawn. Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team of eminent members of the civil society like Prashant Bhusan, Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi, and Arvind Kejriwal have proposed the Jan Lokpal Bill which will effectively deter corruption, redress grievances and protect whistleblowers. They have highlighted the loopholes in government's version of Lokpal Bill which will give rise to vested interests and would make it a fruitless bill. Let's have a look at some of the major loopholes of government's version of Lokpal Bill. 1. No suo moto recognition of legal cases According to the government's proposal, Lokpal will not have any power to either initiate action suo motu in any case or even receive complaints of corruption from general public. It also says that complaints against the Legislature Members can only be registered to the Speaker of Parliament or the Chairperson of Rajya Sabha who can decide if it should be investigated by Lokpal. As Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy puts it, the proposed Lokpal Bill will become a 'jokepal bill' if it does not have an independent prosecution commission. However, Team Anna is adamant on giving Lokpal the powers to initiate investigations suo moto in any cases. 2. PM, judiciary, bureaucrats outside its ambit A major loophole that makes the controversial bill quite toothless and the anti-corruption exercise a sham one, Prime minister is excluded from its purview. The Lokpal is barred from probing any allegations against the PM who is closely associated with subjects like defence, security and foreign affairs. The proposed bill excludes the Prime Minister, higher judiciary, government bureaucrats, panchayats, and all State government machinery. The bill becomes meaningless if it does not include the bureaucrats who are time and again proved to be the masterminds behind many of the major corruption scams in India. 3. Lokpal is just an advisory body The government proposal highlights the fact that the Lokpal is just an advisory body which will forward its report to the competent authority after investiga tion. The particular competent authority will decide whether to take action on Lokpal's report or not. In this era of coalition government, it will be impossible for the PM to take any action against his cabinet members as the prime minister is the competent authority when it comes to cabinet ministers. The Jan Lokpal Bill fights for those powers by which the Lokpal can initiate prosecution against any one after completion of investigations in any case. 4. A commission of 3 retired judges The government's version of Lokpal will consist of three retired judges. It does not give any justifiable reason as to why the selection should be res tricted to judiciary alone. It's so obvious that vested interests will dominate the decision of the ruling government while choosing the members of Lokpal. Jan Lokpal fights for a revised model where it demands for the inclusion of any eminent citizen who has fought against corruption. It also argues that the selection should be made by government, civil society members and judiciary. 5. Legally unsound The bill does not give any police powers to the Lokpal and therefore, it cannot register an FIR on any complaint. It can only conduct a preliminary enquiry. An aspect that makes it legally unsound, the government-proposed bill ensures that all enquiries conducted by Lokpal will be equal to preliminary enquiries where many questions such as - who will file the charge sheet in the court? Who will appoint the prosecution lawyer? Who will initiate prosecution? etc remain unanswered.