The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to intervene in the Lokpal bill drafting process, saying the role of the judiciary in the matter will only come after the Act is passed by Parliament and it is challenged in the court of law.
While rejecting the plea for urgent hearing of an “interlocutory” application filed by an advocate, whose main petition on the Lokpal issue is pending before the top court, a vacation bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and A.K. Patnaik said there was no urgency in the matter as the drafting process was still at the stage of debate and dialogue.
Advocate M.L. Sharma, who had challenged the involvement of the “civil society” members in the drafting process in his main petition, which is likely to be taken up on the reopening of the court after July 4, in the fresh application wanted the Supreme Court to restrain the government from placing the draft of the civil society members before the all-party meeting called by the government on July 3 to discuss the issue. Mr Sharma in his application said since the government members and the representatives of the civil society had failed to formulate a common draft bill, consideration of the draft of the civil society by the all-party meeting will be “unconstitutional” as there is no provision in the Constitution for assigning the bill drafting to a non-governmental body.
As Mr Sharma wanted the top court to take up his petition on Friday, ahead of the July 3 all-party meeting, the vacation bench rejected his plea asking him, “Do you think that one of the drafts will be made a law by Monday (July 4)?”