Retired Supreme Court Judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose is most likely to be become India’s first Lokpal. The Supreme Court of India had set a deadline for the government to appoint a Lokpal.
The Selection Committee meeting on Friday consisting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and Jurist Mukul Rohatgi was recommended and finalised.
The opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge failed to attend the meeting that was arranged on Friday. Mr.Kharge was invited as a ‘special invitee’. Special invitees don’t have any powers to appointment or select the Lokpal, but instead are mere spectators in the committee meetings.
The official announcement is likely to be made early coming week.
The Lokpal which is an anti-corruption watchdog consists of three members, a chairman, a judicial and non-judicial member. The members of the Lokpal will include eight members – former High Court judges and civil servants.
In the Lokpal Search Committee meetings PC Ghose’s name was selected.
PC Ghose retired in May 2017 and is presently a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The former Supreme Court judge had convicted Sasikala in the Jayalalithaa disproportionate assets case.
The announcement comes only because the Supreme Court of India gave the selection committee 10 days time to announce a name.
(The Pigeon Express Opinion – Anna Hazare the anti-corruption crusader demanded for the Lokpal, and conducted several peaceful protests since 2010. The Indian Parliament finally passed the Lokpal bill in 2013, however the the government failed to implement it. What the BJP Government had to do immediately after taking office in 2014, its doing now towards the end of its five year term only because the Supreme Court is behind them.)