The second meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee, with five representatives each from the government and civil society, will take place on Monday at the office of its chairman, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. It is expected that the members will deliberate on the bill clause by clause at this meeting.
On the eve of the meeting, the five government members, who besides Mr Mukherjee include home minister P. Chidambaram, law minister M. Veerappa Moily, human resources development minister Kapil Sibal and water resources minister Salman Khurshid, held a strategy session on Sunday evening. Civil society members, under the banner of “India Against Corruption”, meanwhile, organised a “nationwide rally” here Sunday evening to garner greater public support for an effective bill.
Monday’s meeting assumes greater significance as it is in the backdrop of sharp differences surfacing between civil society members on the drafting committee and top legal luminaries, particularly over issues like the inclusion of the Prime Minister and the higher judiciary in the ambit of the proposed Lokpal.
The latest version of the “Jan Lokpal Bill” also has a new clause — Clause 13-C — which seeks to give wide powers to “an appropriate bench of the Lokpal” to “approve interception and monitoring of messages or data or voice transmitted through telephones, Internet or any other medium ... as covered under the Indian Telegraph Act, read with the Information Technology Act 2000”. At present, all such powers to intercept telephonic and other communications is vested solely with the Union home ministry.
Another new provision in this draft is on the setting up of a separate “prosecution wing” for the office of Lokpal, which is already envisaged to have powers to investigate. The draft was circulated to government representatives during the Committee’s fist meeting on April 16.
Though initially doubtful about attending the meeting due to his illness, social activist and drafting panel member Anna Hazare, who spearheaded the campaign for a strong anti-corruption legislation, has confirmed his attendance on Monday. One of his close associates, while confirming his presence along with other civil society members — Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Justice Santosh Hegde and Arvind Kejriwal — said: “Though doctors have suggested complete rest, he has decided to attend the crucial meeting and will be in New Delhi either by Sunday night or early Monday morning.”
At the strategy meeting of ministers who are members of the committee, sources said law minister Veerappa Moily explained the finer points of a comparative statement of government and civil society versions of the bill drawn up by his ministry. Mr Moily briefed his Cabinet colleagues on the changes that the official version of the draft legislation had undergone since it was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 9, 1968.
Meanwhile, as Mr Hazare had sought a Hindi or Marathi interpreter at the first meeting, sources said the finance ministry had hired two such persons from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, each of whom would be paid `450 per meeting.