New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to inform it within 10 days about a possible date for the meeting of the selection committee, headed by the PM, to appoint the country’s first anti-corruption authority—the Lokpal.
The top court was informed by the Centre that search committee, headed by former apex court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, had recommended to the selection committee three names each for the — chairperson, judicial member and non-judicial member. It can have maximum of eight member.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi ordered, “We have considered the matter. At this stage, the order which we consider appropriate to pass is to request the Attorney General to inform the court within 10 days from today about the possible date of convening a meeting of the Selection Committee for finalization of the names for constitution of the Lokpal”.
The bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, was told by Venugopal that the search committee in pursuant to the apex court’s earlier order has shortlisted three panels of names and has recommended them on February 28 to the selection committee.
It was hearing a contempt petition filed by NGO Common Cause which has raised the issue of non-appointment of Lokpal despite the apex court’s judgement of April 27, 2017. The SC also refused to pass any direction for putting the names shortlisted by the search committee in public domain after advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for petitioner NGO argued that the Lokpal Act mentions about transparency and therefore names should be uploaded on the website.