The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, commonly known as The Lokpal Act, is an anti-corruption Act of Indian Parliament which "seeks to provide for the establishment of the institution of Lokpal to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain important public functionaries including the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Group A officials of the Central Government and for matters connecting them".
The Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, on 22 December 2011 and was passed by the House on 27 December as The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011. It was subsequently tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, on 29 December. After a marathon debate that stretched until midnight of the following day, the vote failed to take place for lack of time. On 21 May 2012, it was referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for consideration. It was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 17 December 2013, after certain amendments were made to the earlier Bill, and in the Lok Sabha the next day. It received assent from President Pranab Mukherjee on 1 January 2014 and came into force on 16 January.
The Bill had been introduced in the parliament following massive public protests led by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his associates. The Bill was one of the most widely discussed and debated Bills in India, both by the media and the people of India at large, in recent times. The Hazare-led protests were named among the "Top 10 News Stories of 2011" by Time magazine. The bill received worldwide media coverage.
Retired Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose was appointed as the first Lokpal of India by a committee consisting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi on 17 March 2019.
Background
The term Lokpal was coined in 1963 by Laxmi Mall Singhvi, a member of parliament during a parliamentary debate about grievance mechanisms. The Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Morarji Desai submitted an interim report on "Problems of Redressal of Citizen's Grievances" in 1966. In this report, ARC recommended the creation of two special authorities designated as 'Lokpal' and 'Lokayukta' for redress of citizens' grievances. The word was derived from the Sanskrit words "Lok" and "Pala", meaning 'Caretaker of People'.Maharashtra was the first state to introduce Lokayukta through The Maharashtra Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act in 1971. Presently, there are no Lokayuktas in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura.
The Lokpal bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1968. The version enacted in 2013 was from a draft prepared in 2010. The bill is an implementation of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Eleven parliamentary panels have been formed to discuss the Lokpal bill.
The Act for each state says “Every State shall establish a body to be known as the Lokayukta for the State, if not so established, constituted or appointed, by a law made by the State Legislature, to deal with complaints relating to corruption against certain public functionaries, within a period of one year from the date of commencement of this Act”.
| Year | Cost of lokpal | Status of bill |
| 1968 | ₹300,000 | The Fourth Lok Sabha dissolved before the bill could be passed by the Rajya Sabha. The bill lapsed. |
| 1971 | ₹2 million | This bill lapsed on dissolution of the Fifth Lok Sabha. |
| 1977 | ₹2.5 million | The Sixth Lok Sabha dissolved just before the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee could be considered. |
| 1985 | ₹2.5 million | This bill was withdrawn by the government. |
| 1989 | ₹3.5 million | This bill lapsed on dissolution of the Ninth Lok Sabha. |
| 1996 | ₹10 million | The Standing Committee presented its report to Parliament on 9 May 1996. However, the Lok Sabha was dissolved before government could finalise its stand. |
| 1998 | ₹10 million | The Twelfth Lok Sabha was dissolved before government could take a view on the recommendations made by The Parliamentary Standing Committee. |
| 2001 | ₹15 million | The Lok Sabha was dissolved. Hence, the bill lapsed. |
| 2011/2012 | The Government's version of Lokpal does not have any financial memorandum. | Passed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 17 December 2013. Lok sabha passed the bill on 18 December 2013. |
History
2010 draft bill
The 2010 draft was created by the United Progressive Alliance to create an Ombudsman tasked with tackling political corruption. The draft was circulated to various ministries for their review. It provided a mechanism for filing complaints against the prime minister, ministers and MPs. However, civil society groups were not satisfied and rejected it as a toothless body with only recommendatory powers.Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to pressure the government to create an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public places as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill. The fast led to nationwide protests in support. The fast ended on 9 April, one day after the government accepted his demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.
Joint draft bill
A Joint Drafting Committee was established, consisting of five ministers and five members of the civil society. The chairman of the Joint Drafting Committee was Pranab Mukherjee. The Committee set 30 June 2011 as the deadline to complete the drafting process.| Member Name | Party |
| Pranab Mukherjee | Union Minister of Finance |
| P. Chidambaram | Union Minister of Home Affairs |
| M. Veerappa Moily | Union Minister of Law and Justice |
| Kapil Sibal | Minister of Communication and Information Technology |
| Salman Khursheed | Union Minister of Water Resources |
| Anna Hazare | Civil society |
| N. Santosh Hegde | Civil Society, Retired Judge Supreme Court of India |
| Shanti Bhushan | Civil Society, Former Union Minister of Law and Justice |
| Prashant Bhushan | Civil Society |
| Arvind Kejriwal | Civil Society |
First draft meeting
The Committee first met on 16 April 2011, in the North Block and lasted for about ninety minutes. Team Anna presented their version of the bill with a slight modification relating to the selection panel to choose the Lokpal and its members. Under the revised proposal, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha were replaced with the Rajya Sabha chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker. The meeting was allegedly recorded and the Committee claimed that decisions would be made available to the general public. HRD Minister and Committee member Kapil Sibal, said that both the sides were keen that the new Bill should be introduced in the Monsoon session, which would begin early July.Second draft meeting
The Committee met as planned on 2 May 2011. The meeting was termed "very good" and with "no difference of opinion" between the panel members. Sibal said that the meeting discussed the document presented previously by the civil society members. Prashant Bhushan said, "The meeting was mainly to discuss the basic principles behind the Jan Lokpal Bill. The discussion was on essential features, objects and reasons of the bill which have been prepared according to the main provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption. All signatories of the United Nations Convention against Corruption have to pass this kind of law." In May 2011, the Indian Government had ratified two UN Conventions – the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its three protocols.Third draft meeting
After the third meeting on 7 May 2011, Bhushan said "Lokpal will have powers to initiate investigation and prosecution and will not need permission from the government. The model on which the financial independence will be based is yet to be decided. Various models were discussed, including from other countries and of institutions like the Supreme Court, the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commission."Kapil Sibal said the meeting was "exceptionally constructive" and added, "The approach was very constructive. There were areas of broad agreement, including the process of appointment of Lokpal which should be transparent." Another group of civil society members led by Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander working for a strong Lokpal Bill, upped its ante against Team Anna. Under the banner of the "National Campaign for People's Right to Information" they claimed that Anna's diktat could be dangerous and that the government's functioning could not be handled by one group.