The Supreme Court on Thursday requested the search committee on Lokpal to recommend by the end of February a panel of names for appointing the country’s first anti-graft ombudsman.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Centre to make available requisite infrastructure, manpower, secretarial assistance and others to enable the committee, which is headed by former apex court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, to commence its work immediately and conclude it within the time frame.
The Bench, also comprising justices LN Rao and SK Kaul, ordered this after Attorney General KK Venugopal apprised the court that due to certain difficulties like lack of office space, infrastructure, manpower and secretariat, “possibly, the search committee has felt handicapped in convening its meetings and in holding its deliberations”. It also noted in its order that the eight-member committee, which was constituted by a Government notification of September 27 last year, had not undertaken any deliberations till January 16 and a meeting was held only on Wednesday.
