The Jan Lokpal Bill

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Why??
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Scams, Scams.

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No Punishment, No Jail In Last 63 Years

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What??
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Centre and will be set up.

UNDERSTANDING LOKPALLOKPAL at the BILL 1. An institution called

LOKAYUKTA in each state

2. Like Supreme Court and Election ommission, they will be completely dependent of the governments. No inister or bureaucrat will be able to fluence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not nger on anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should 4/13/12 Completed in next one year so

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction 5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the `complainant.
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7.But wont the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That wont be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process. 8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any 4/13/12

Who??
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Who is Anna Hazare?

Name: Kisan Baburao Hazare (Anna Hazare) Indian social activist. He developed Ralegaon Siddhi, a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Now, he fights for passing a strong Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the 4/13/12

Joint Committee: Our Members

Anna Hazare: Social worker

Shanti Bhushan: ex-Law Minister and SC lawyer

Arvind Kejriwal: Resigned from IRS for social work

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Prashant Bhushan: SC Advocate and a Crusader

Justice Santosh Hegde: Ktaka Lok Ayukta

Anna Hazare initiated a movement for passing a stronger anticorruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliament. Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, JM 4/13/12 Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare

The Conflict
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Civil Societys Draft

Governments Draft

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Governments Draft Selection Committee

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Civil Societys Draft Selection Committee

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Critical Issues Selection of Lokpal Members

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft
5 out of 10 members from ruling Search committee to be selected by No clear selection process provided government

Broad based selection committee 2 politicians, 4 judges & 2 independent constitutional authorities.

Selection committee itself

Independent Search committee Detailed transparent selection

process with PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Governments will be able to appoint its own Lokpal members & Chairperson.
Earlier agreed to Selection committee, Selection process, Disagreement only on composition of Search committee 4/13/12 (Joint Committee meeting, 7th May)

Critical Issues
Jan Lokpal Draft Governments Draft
Delegation of Powers

Lokpal members will only hear cases

against senior officers and politicians or cases involving huge amounts.

All work will be done by 11 members of Lokpal. Practically no delegation.

Rest of the work will be done by officers

working under Lokpal

Financial Independence

Lokpal 11 members collectively will decide how much budget do they need 4/13/12

Finance ministry will decide the quantum of budget

Critical Issues Accountability (Lokpal Members)

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft

Accountable to the PEOPLE Any Citizen can make a complaint to Judicial review over the actions of the Lokpal

Accountable to the Government. Only government can seek removal of Lokpal

Supreme Court and seek removal.

by the High Courts under Article 226 and the Supreme Court under Article 32 & 136

Both Selection and Removal of Lokpal in Governments control Puppet in governments hands
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Critical Issues Accountability (Lokpal Staff)

Jan Lokpal Draft
Complaint against Lokpal staff will be heard by an independent authority Lokpal itself will investigate complaints against its own staff, thus creating serious conflicts of interest

Governments Draft

Governments Lokpal is accountable Either to ITSELF or the GOVT. We suggested accountability of Lokpal Directly to PUBLIC
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Critical Issues Merge CBI

Jan Lokpal Draft
Anti-corruption branch of CBI should be merged into Lokpal

Governments Draft
Government wants to retain its hold over CBI.

CBI misused by government for political motives

Recently, govt exempted CBI from RTI

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Critical Issues
Governments Draft
Tap Phones

Jan Lokpal Draft

Lokpal bench will grant permission to do so

Home Secretary would grant permission

Prevent ongoing Corruption

Lokpal will have a duty to take steps to prevent corruption in any ongoing activity, if brought to his notice. If need be, Lokpal will obtain orders from High Court.

No such duties & powers of Lokpal

2G is believed to have been known while the process was going on. Shouldnt some agency have a duty to take steps to stop further corruption rather than just punish people later?
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Critical Issues
Jan Lokpal Draft
Punishment

Governments Draft

Maximum punishment life imprisonment Quantum of punishment with rank Higher fines for accused business entities If successfully convicted, a business entity

None of these accepted. Only maximum punishment raised to 10 years.

blacklisted from future contracts.

Dismissal of Corrupt Government Servant

After completion of investigations, in addition to

filing a case in a court for prosecution, bench of Lokpal will hold open hearings & decide whether to remove the government servant from job.

The minister will decide whether to remove a corrupt officer or not. Often, Ministers are beneficiaries of corruption of senior officers

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Critical Issues Grievance Redressal

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft

If an officer does not do a COMMON MANs work in prescribed time &

Violates CITIZENS CHARTER - Penalty imposed & is deemed corruption.

No penalties proposed. So, this will remain only on paper

Government had earlier agreed to it!

(Joint committee meeting, 23rd May)

Unfortunately have gone back on this decision.

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Critical Issues Whistleblower Protection

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft

Lokpal will be required to provide protection to

whistleblowers, witnesses & victims of corruption

No mention in this law.

Protection for whistleblowers is being provided through a separate law. That law so bad - Trashed by Standing Committee of Parliament headed by Ms Jayanthi Natrajan. Earlier agreed that Lokpal would be given the duty of providing protection to whistleblowers under the other law, & that law would also be discussed & improved in Joint Committee only (Joint Committee meeting, 23rd May)
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Critical Issues MPs

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft
Government has excluded this from Lokpals purview.

Lokpal should be able to investigate allegations that any MP had taken bribe to vote or speak in Parliament

Article 105(2) gives them Freedom to Vote or Speak in Parliament,

Not Freedom for taking Bribe for doing so!

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Critical Issues Prime Minister

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft
PM kept out of

Lokpal to have power to

investigate allegations of corruption against PM.

Lokpals purview.

Special safeguards provided against

frivolous & mischievous complaints

No immunity to PM, only President as per our constitution to maintain stability of state Corruption by PM can be/has been investigated, under Prevention of Corruption Act If PM exempted, then all offices/ministries under PM also exempt 4/13/12

Critical Issues Judiciary

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft
Judiciary kept out of Lokpals purview.

Lokpal should have power

to investigate allegations of corruption against Judiciary.

Special safeguards provided

against frivolous & mischievous complaints

Government wants it to be included in Judicial Accountability Bill (JAB)...

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Critical Issues
Jan Lokpal Draft Governments Draft
Special Benches in High Court
High Courts will set up special benches to
hear appeals in corruption cases to fast track them, as a study shows it takes 25 years for appeal process typically.
No such provision

Amendments to CrPC
On the basis of past experience on why anticorruption cases take a long time in courts and why do our agencies lose them, some amendments to CrPC have been suggested to prevent frequent stay orders. 4/13/12

Not included

Critical Issues Lokayukta

Jan Lokpal Draft

Governments Draft
Only Lokpal at the centre would be created through this Bill.

The same bill should provide for Lokpal at centre and Lokayuktas in states

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END OF THE PRESENTATION

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME & PATIENCE

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