Competence of Parliament to make a law for establishing Lokayuktas and grievance redress mechanisms in the States

House panel likely to clear Lokayuktas in all states

Himanshi Dhawan, TNN | Oct 17, 2011, 12.12AM IST

NEW DELHI: The parliamentary standing committee on law and justice is veering around to recommending exclusion of lower bureaucracy from the purview of the proposed Lokpal and facilitating setting up of powerful Lokayuktas in all states.

While the panel is likely to endorse the government's bill on the basic structure of the Lokpal, including exclusion of lower bureaucracy, higher judiciary, citizen's charter and allowing PM with certain safeguards, it may also recommend that the Supreme Court judgmentinokhorwal@yahoo.com, rt1803@gmail.com, s.dhikale@licindia.com, veenayes@gmail.com,ssatishrao@bhel.in, satyajit.mishra@nic.in, mohangopal@rgics.org, uddin_imam@yahoo.com,pkachare@gmail.com, opa@cuts.org, info@intertechcorporation.com,siddharth@bapnatech.com, smilingverma@yahoo.co.in, mohdafzal1963@gmail.com, theJharkhand Mukti Morcha case be reviewed, allowing for stronger control of conduct of MPs. Anna Hazare had demanded that conduct of MPs inside Parliament be brought within the Lokpal but the panel is unlikely to accept it.

A major bone of contention -- also part of the Parliament resolution -- was inclusion of all government employees under the ambit of the Lokpal. This has been shot down by the committee and it appears unlikely that Team Anna's demand will be accepted. Most members feel that an 11-member Lokpal will not be able to efficiently handle 40-lakh government employees and may prove entirely ineffective as a result...

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I have attached an opinion piece on the legal and constitutional questions of Parliament's competence to make a law for:

 

1) the establishment of Lokayuktas in all States except Jammu and Kashmir; and

 

2) the establishment of a grievance redress mechanism in all States except Jammu and Kashmir

 

Towards the end of this note, the constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir vis-a-vis the Lokpal/Lokayukta and Grievance Redress laws is also discussed.

 

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