March 19, 2019
NEW DELHI: Retired Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose has been appointed
as the country's first Lokpal.
Former Chief Justices Dilip B Bhosale, Pradip Kumar Mohanty and Abhilasha
Kumari, besides sitting Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court Ajay Kumar
Tripathi, have been appointed as judicial members in the anti-corruption ombudsman,
a communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan said on Tuesday.
Members other than judicial members are Dinesh Kumar Jain, ex- Maharashtra
Chief Secretary, Archana Ramasundaram, former first woman chief of Sashastra
Seema Bal (SSB), Mahender Singh, former IRS officer, and Indrajeet Prasad Gautam,
Gujarat cadre ex-IAS officer.
The appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their
respective offices, the communique said.
The panel to choose the candidates -- headed by the prime minister -- includes
the Lok Sabha speaker, leader of the opposition in the lower house, the Chief
Justice of India or any judge of the Supreme court he nominates, and an eminent
jurist who could be nominated by the President or any other member. President
Ram Nath Kovind nominated Mukul Rohatgi, a former Attorney General, as the ''eminent
jurist''.
Justice Ghose, 66, became judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1997. He was
appointed to the Supreme Court in 2013. He has been a member of the National
Human Rights Commission since retirement in 2017.
The Lokpal Act proposes the setting up of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas
in the States to look into cases of corruption against public servants. The
enactment of the legislation followed the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption crusade
early this decade.
