Anubhi Saxena
NEW DELHI: Pinaki Chandra Ghose, member of National Human Rights Commission is currently a Lokpal, an anti-corruption ombudsman of India since 19th March 2019. Nominated by PM Modi and appointed by Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.
A Lokpal is an anti-corruption authority who represents the public interest in the Republic of India. The concept of an ombudsman is borrowed from Sweden. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which seeks to provide the establishment of institution of a Lokpal to inquire allegations of corruption against sitting at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states, was enacted in 2013 and signed by Pranab Mukherjee and received assent on January 1, 2014. But the appointment was delayed due to various reasons. Opposition parties had been accusing the Modi government of delaying the appointment of Lokpal.
The name of the lokpal was decided in a meeting attended by PM and other higher authorities wherein the invitation was also sent to Congress Senior leader Mallikarjun Khadge as a special invitee who later on decided to boycott the meeting citing the reason that there is no such provision for the same.
The lokpal squad consist of Judicial and non judicial members headed by Jus. P C Ghose(66) , retired Judge of Supreme Court in May 2017. The judicial members are Justices Dilip B Bhosale, Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Abhilasha Kumari and Ajay Kumar Tripathi while Dinesh Kumar Jain, Archana Ramasundaram, Mahender Singh and Dr Indrajeet Prasad Gautam are appointed in the non judicial category.
What makes Ghose the perfect gatekeeper?
Ghose obtained his law degree from the University of Calcutta and was enrolled as an advocate in 1976. He has practised in civil, commercial, constitutional and company matters in the Calcutta high court and was appointed a permanent judge on July 17, 1997. Ghose is believed to have the highest regard for the Indian judiciary and zero tolerance towards contempt of court. In fact, he was part of the bench which handed out punishment to then Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan for a visible act of contempt.
One key verdict is his 2017 ruling on the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha and her aide VK Sasikala. Another significant verdict that Ghose was a part of was the one that restored criminal conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders.
His name was finalised and recommended by the Selection Committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi. Justices Dilip B Bhosale, Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Abhilasha Kumari and Ajay Kumar Tripathi have been appointed as 4 judicial members in the anti-corruption ombudsman. Apart from these, Former Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) chief Archana Ramasundaram, ex-Maharashtra chief secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, Mahender Singh and Indrajeet Prasad Gautam have been appointed as non-judicial members of Lokpal.
“I welcome the decision of appointing the country’s first Lokpal. The people’s movement for it, going on for 48 years now, has finally won,” Anna Hazare told reporters.
India gets its first Lokpal by the determintaion of anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and the people’s movement of India against Corruption. He began a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for the introduction of Lokpal bill since April 5, 2011. The Anna Hazare-led movement had gained wide traction in 2013 in series like Commonwealth Games, 2G and Coalgate during the Manmohan Singh government. Other members of the Lokpal Committee will be finalised by next week.
