No party was in favour of the lokpal: Santosh Hegde

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All political parties are against “any move that will contain corruption”, so, as predicted, no political party wanted the Jan Lokpal Bill to be passed in Rajya Sabha, former Supreme Court judge, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, remarked here on Thursday.

Delivering a lecture on “Relevance of Lokpal in Contemporary India” at the NALSAR University of Law, the former Lokayukta of Karnataka said, “Any further corruption in India will result in a complete collapse of the democratic system.

Justice Hegde, along with other legal experts and RTI activists, played a key role in drafting the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill), seeking appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body to investigate corruption cases, complete each investigation within a year and complete the trial in the next one year.

Justice Hegde pointed out that the contentious Bill, which united a large chunk of the middle-class populace under Anna Hazare’s platform last year, has been hanging fire since 1968. Introduced at least 11 times, it was never passed by both Houses of Parliament. Had the Bill been passed in 1968, he remarked, corruption among government officials would have been contained to a large extent.

He criticised Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for his “inaction” in getting the Bill passed in the Upper House, despite having admitted the presence of widespread corruption. Justice Hedge also listed the major scams unearthed in India over the last few years and said the figure is enormous enough to ring alarm bells.

Alleging that the draft Bill is being subjected to false propaganda regarding its content, Justice Hegde said Lokpal will not be a “completely autono-mous and unquestionable post”, but a panel of five Supreme Court judges would probe any complaint against the Lokpal.