lokpal jdc - minutes of meeting 6

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Minutes of the Sixth Meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee iJ6C) fordrafting the lok Pal Bill held on 06.06.2011 (Monday) at 16.30 hrs. inRoom No.41, North Block.

The following were present:

(i) Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Ministerof Finance - Chairman

(ii) Shri P. Chidambaram, Ministerof Home Affairs

(iii) Dr. M. Veerappa Moily, Ministerof Law and Justice - Convener

(iv) Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister ofHuman Resource Developmentand Minister of Communicationand Information Technology.

(v) Shri Salman Khursheed, Ministerof Water Resources and Ministerof Minority Affairs.

Representatives of the Civil Society were not present.

2. At the outset, the Chairman welcomed all the Members present.

He mentioned that Shri Shanti Shushan, CoChairman of the JOC had

sent a letter indicating their inability to attend the meeting. The

Chairman then read out the contents of letter to the Members of Joint

Drafting Committee. The Chairman observed that some of the issues

mentioned in the said letter were extraneous and not in any way relatedto the mandate of the Joint Drafting Committee. He further stated that

what happened at RamUla ground had nothing to do with the

proceedings/meetings of the Joint Drafting Committee. He clarified that

the Joint Drafting Committee was constituted to draft the Lokpal Sill.

The Committee had worked out its procedure, and it was agreed that the


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vision and the general principles of the Lokpal bill as suggested by the

Civil Society Members shall be discussed clause by clause. He stated

that in the last five meetings a number of issues including issues on

basic principles which the members of Civil Society identified, have

been discussed. About 40 ingredients of basic principles were

discussed, and each of them was deliberated upon by the Drafting

Committee. The Drafting Committee has agreed on a number of issues,

but on certain issues, there is divergence of views and these were kept

in 'square brackets' for further discussion.

3. Referring to the letter of Shri Shanti Bhushan, the Chairman

further stated that one of the issues raised relates to the letter written by

the Chairman on May 31, 2011 to the Chief Ministers and the Leaders of

political parties seeking their opinion/views on the six major issues.

Shri Shanti Bhushan had expressed a view that the letter was drafted in

the form of a questionnaire and therefore inappropriate. This contention

of Shri Shanti Bhushan was incorrect, since the Chief Ministers and the

leaders of the political parties were requested to give their views on six

major issues on which there is a divergence of views between the

Government representatives and the representatives of the Civil SOCiety.

These, inter alia, include jurisdiction of Lokpal, the immunities providedto the Members of the Parliament under Article 105 of the Constitution in

respect of voting and speaking on the floor of the House, etc. The aim

behind writing to the Chief Ministers and leaders of political parties was

to seek their opinion on these issues and while a questionnaire was

added to the letter, this was only for ease of answering and nothing

prevented the CMs and the leaders of the political parties to give their

opinion/views in details as some of them had already done. The

Chairman stated that he had already received a number of responsesfrom important political parties viz. BJP, BSP, SP and CPl.

Administrator of UT of Chandigarh and some Chief Ministers had also

sent their responses. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar,

also sent his response though he had raised certain doubts which were

clarified by the Chairman through his second letter.


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4. The Chairman suggested that in the present meeting the

Committee should concentrate on drafting the Lokpal legislation. The

Committee should proceed with the areas where there was convergence

of views, and complete the drafting in respect of these clauses. The

Chairman further suggested that where there was divergence of views

between the representatives of Government and the representatives of

the Civil Society. the view pomts of both government side and the civil

society side could be indicated in the draft. Thereafter. this draft could

be circulated to the political parties and Chief Ministers for their

comments, and their views could also be considered, as suggested by

the Samajwadi Party, by arranging a meeting with the leaders of political

parties. The Chairman was of the view that in this way. the work could

be accomplished through a broad based consensus. He further noted

that it was unfortunate that the members of the Civil Society had

decided to boycott the sixth meeting of the JOC on the issues which

were not in the domain of the Joint Drafting Committee. However. the

Chairman agreed with the request of Shri Shanti Shushan to shift the

next date of meeting from 10 th June to any other date after 11thJune.

2011.

5.1 Thereafter. the Chairman invited the Minister of Home Affairs to

take up the draft prepared by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

5.2 Minister of Home Affairs referring to the draft of the various

clauses for the proposed Lokpal Bill, observed that the draft broadly had

been prepared on the basis of the principles already agreed upon.

5.3 Minister of Home Affairs read out the formulation of clause 1(a) ofthe draft which was related to the expenses of Lokpal to be charged on

the Consolidated Fund of India. The Committee was of the unanimous

view that the formulation was in order.


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5.4 Referring to the formulation of first proviso to the clause 1 (b)

relating to staff of the Lokpal, Minister of Home Affairs observed that the

given formulation is in 'double negatives', and it should be reworded in

a simple positive sentence to denote that in respect of any post or class

of posts as may be specified, appointment shall be made after

consultations with the UPSC. This was agreed to.

5.5 Thereafter, formulation of clause 2 which related to the terms of

office and other conditions of service of Chairperson and Members of

Lokpal, was taken up. It was observed that the draft formulation was

correct, but it did not deal with the issue of eligibility of the Chairman

and Members of Lokpal to contest elections. Minister of Human

Resources Development stated that the Committee should take a viewwhether the Chairperson/Members of Lokpal were eligible to contest

elections or not. The Chairman observed that whether a person would

be eligible to contest election or not was determined by the Constitution

as per the prescribed specific disqualifications. Whether it would be

legally possible is another question. Minister of Law and Justice

observed that if the Chairperson/Members of Lokpal were made

ineligible to contest elections, in that case, amendment to Constitution

may be required. Minister of Water Resources was of the view that it

was not a good idea to make Chairperson/Members of Lokpal ineligible

to contest elections. Chairman suggested that this issue may be

decided by the Cabinet, and this aspect may be brought out in detail in

the note for the Cabinet. After discussions, it was decided that a point

(iv) may be added to sub clause 2 of this clause. This, may be to the

effect that they would not be eligible for elections to the office of

President/Vice President, Member of Parliament, State Legislature,

Municipalities and Panchayats.

5.6 Coming to formulation of clause 3, Minister of Home Affairs

suggested that sub clause (1) and (2) should be merged to read as:


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"The Chairperson and Members shall be appointed by the President by

Warrant under his hand and seal after obtaining the recommendations

of the Selection Committee".

Accordingly, the numbering of subsequent sub-clauses will also

change. It was also decided that in the renumbered sub clause (3),

[earlier sub-clause (4)], in line one, the word 'shall' should be replaced

by 'may'.

5.7 Minister of Home Affairs, thereafter took up the formulation of

clause 4 and pointed out that the last line before the word "procedure"

the word "the" is required to be inserted. This was agreed to.

5.8 The draft fonnulation to clause 5 was taken up by the Minister of

Home Affairs and it was suggested that in the second line, after the

words 'the Lokpal shall', the word 'only' be deleted. This was agreed to.

5.9 Minister of Home Affairs took up the draft formulation of clause 6

which relates to jurisdiction of the Lokpal. In part (e) of the sub clause

(1), it was observed that the word 'rank' appearing at the end of this part

may be deleted. Similarly, in part (f) of the sub clause (1), in the firstline, after the words 'equivalent or above' the word 'rank' may be

deleted.

5.10 In so far, the formulation relating to the inquiry by the Lokpal into

any matter involved in, or arising from or connected with any allegation

of corruption against the Prime Minister is concerned, the Chairman

observed that so long as the Prime Minister holds the office, any inquiry

should be suspended and the Lokpal may keep the matter of inquiry

with himself. However, the moment the Prime Minister demits office,

the inquiry can proceed. Minister of Human Resource Development

enquired whether the former Ministers would also be covered. Minister

of Home Affairs stated that since Lokpal would be a new authority, it had

to be made clear as to who would be covered, and he suggested that all

those who were covered by the Prevention of Corruption Act, even if

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they have demitted office/retired, should be covered. Therefore, it was

decided that the part (c) of sub clause (1) needs to be redrafted to

include Ministers, former Ministers, MPs and former MPs. Furthermore,

jurisdiction of the Lokpal may include in its ambit "any other person

who is/was at the time of commission of the offence, a 'public servant'

as defined under the Prevention of Corruption Act". For this purpose a

part (g) may be added to this sub clause.

5.11 The Committee thereupon took up the question of period of

limitation for initiating inquiries by the Lokpal. Minister for Human

Resource Development stated that the law relating to criminal procedure

should apply to the cases under the Lokpal. Thereupon, Addl. Secretary

(S&V) stated that in the earlier Bill, a limitation period of five year wasprovided. Minister of Water Resources was of the view that limitation

period should be there. However, a view emerged that whatever

limitation period is applicable under the Prevention of Corruption Act

should also apply in this case also.

6. The Committee confirmed the Minutes of the 4th meeting held on

23.05.2011and of the 5 th meeting held on 30.05.2011. It was decided that

these may be posted on the webpage of the Lokpal/Ministry of

Personnel.

7. Keeping in view the request of Shri Shanti Bhushan to reschedule

the next meeting the Joint Drafting Committee (originally scheduled to

meet on 10 th June, 2011), it was decided that the next meeting may be

held on 15 th June, 2011.

The meetlng ended with a vote of thanks.

lokpal jdc - minutes of meeting 6

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