Lokpal Bill Public Consultation

Senthilkumar Says:
# A3127LB June 6th, 2011 at 3:22 pm

1. Every indian including Prime Minister/judiciary should be covered under Lokpal.
2. People’s Grievances should be covered under Lokpal. Otherwise lokpal is a joke. Lokpal will become another useless nonsense.There has to be provision for anonymous complaints too.
3. Lokpal should give protection to whistleblowers.
4. Lokpal should investigate all corruption cases. There is no elimination. Limiting lokpall powers is meant only for making lokpal powerless and fooling people.
5. CBI,CVC and departmental vigilance should not be merged into Lokpal. Let Lokpal be an independent body and let the existing anti-­‐corruption bodies keep functioning in the manner that they have been functioning.

V Khera Says:
# A3046LB June 5th, 2011 at 8:49 pm

Prime Minister should be covered under Lokpal.
A corrupt PM is not only a matter of shame for the entire nation, but also a threat to the national security and economic sovereignity, and an impediment to the development and well-being of the country's citizens.

Judiciary should also be covered under Lokpal.
A corrupt or incompetent judge is more likely to deliver a flawed judgement than a honest and competent one. So many judgements have been reversed on appeal in higher courts, which proves that the either the initial or the subsequent judgement was flawed. And of course court cases linger on for years, involving financial, physical and mental hardship to the genuinely aggrieved parties. So we see that the existing judicial system has deficiencies. Lokpal Bill can be a good solution.

People’s Grievances should Definitely be covered under Lokpal. This will benefit the common man the most.

Existing resources of the CBI, CVC and departmental vigilance should be merged into Lokpal to avoid duplication of work and wastage of taxpayers money.

Anurag Says:
# A3045LB June 5th, 2011 at 6:57 pm

I find it slightly odd that the bill makes no mention of the minimum educational qualifications that a Lokpal should have. In my opinion the person should at least be a graduate who has attended a regular full time course from a recognised University.

Eligibility to become a Lokpal maybe restricted to persons whose gross wealth does not exceed 2500 times(or a suitable multiple) of the national yearly per capita income. Else it will be difficult to avoid the conflict of interest that is envisaged in Para 4 of the Draft. A person wealthier beyond a limit would perhaps logically be unable to suspend all contacts with their business/profession.

I could not find a clear refrence as to what is the proceudre in case of dissent within the bench. Are judgements decided by a simple majority?

Life imprisonment is too big a punishment which should be reserved for grave crimes like murder, terrorist acts etc. An upper limit of 10 years combined with loss of job and penal deductions / confiscation of assets are grave enough a deterrent to make an example out of a corrupt person. Else, there have to be some clearcut benchmarks to avoid over-reaching.

Ram Says:
# A3030LB June 5th, 2011 at 3:04 am

1. Prime Minister should be covered under Lokpal. So that he/she will be cautious before doing something wrong or supporting corrupted ministers or higher officials.
2. Judiciary should be covered under Lokpal. we are seeing so many high profile cases where guilty people are going away without scratch due to corrupted judicial system. We have to prevent it. So common man and society will be saved from corrupted officials and politicians.
3. People’s Grievances should be covered under Lokpal, else Lokpal will get burdened. If assets and money not covered from corrupted officials and politicians, we will never stop corruption. People like to be suspended from the job or go to jail and enjoy with the money they earned after come back to normal life. We have to prevent that. They have to learn from the new system and make them to live honestly in the their remaining life.
4. Lokpal should be given the responsibility of providing protection to whistleblowers. They have to provide certain protection to the persons who complained on an official or politician. otherwise people get easily scared of culprits.
5. Lokpal should only investigate a few high profile cases of corruption. I agree with this to some degree. So that they may concentrate on high profile cases which involves more than 25 crores or more. Leave the low profile cases to other independent system just like lokpal under supervision of independent body.
6. CBI, CVC and departmental vigilance should be merged into Lokpal.
Let Lokpal be keep control over both departments and invistigate case in efficient manner. Lokpal must have enormous powers to handle high officials and politicians. Lokpal must make them pay for their actions.
My last request but not least is please maintain transperancy at each and every step. People must know what going on during the process. It doesn't matter whether case is low or high profile, people have the right to know everything. Lack of transperancy is one of the most hidden agends in today's central and state governments. we hope new locpal system addess this issue and eliminate hidden agenda in goverments.

Bharat Bhushan Chawla Says:
# A3001LB June 4th, 2011 at 3:48 pm

Being the Head On A Nation, The Prime Minister should not be brough under the Lokpal.
The H'onable Chief Justice of Supreme Court & H'onable Chief judges Of High Court should not be brought under the Lokpal.
People grievances should be brough under the Lokpal
Protection for whistleblowers should be the responsibility of Lokpal.
Lokpal should investigate corruption cases irrespective of their profile.
CBI Or CVC must continue to act Independently , however cases against them again should be under Lokpal

Punit Ahluwalia Says:
# A2985LB June 4th, 2011 at 8:07 am

My suggestions:

1. The prime minister and the judiciary must be covered by Lokpal.
2. The courts setup to try corruption cases should be fully transparent. They should publish all important statistics and updates on their web sites.
3. The accountability standards for the judges should also be clearly stated.
4. What kind of evidence will be acceptable as evidence? New technological forensic evidence should be included.
5. Every public official, including all members of parliament, ministers should file statements of Assets and Liabilities every year. They should clearly state losses /gains during the previous year. The financial information should include the immediate family members - spouses/parents/brothers/sisters
6. The onus of proving the wealth/assets as legitimate must rest with the person concerned - not the state.
7. All guilty verdict must include a jail term - because now no one bothers paying fines.
8. What about the appeal process? There should be a national appeals court - equivalent of a high court - which should also dispose of cases within 6 months. All punishments must begin if the guilty verdict is confirmed by the high court even if the accused wishes to appeal in Supreme court.
9. There should be a disincentive for frivolous appeals. The higher court should be free to raise the sentence if it finds that the appeals were filed just to buy time.
10. Public servants/ministers must step aside from their positions once the judgment from the first court is given.
11. The proceedings of the corruption courts should be video recorded and maintained as an archive, even if they cannot be made public.
12 All public servants must disclose all their foreign accounts - with a very stiff punishment if found that they were hidden. There should be no appeals for hiding this information.
13. There should be a corpus into which all frozen accounts/attached assets should flow. A system can be bult that identifies the contribution of assets of every individual. The monies should be returned to the person if she/he is found not guilty. As soon as prima facie evidence is found, all movable assets should be confiscated and flow into a fund - the person be able to withdraw reasonable amounts for sustaining during the period the investigation continues. This is important because people use money to buy witnesses and indulge in other corrupt practices, even to gain acquittance.

Maj. Gen. S. C. N. Jatar Says:
# A2955LB June 3rd, 2011 at 10:08 pm

Please see attached file

I WOULD LIKE TO POST THIS ON FB PAGE,JUST PEOPLE KNOW WHY WE NEED JUSTICS DEPT UNDER LOKEPAL Says:
# A2954LB June 3rd, 2011 at 9:35 pm

Judge under scanner
TNN, Nov 4, 2006, 03.55am IST
LUCKNOW: Members of the Committee on Judicial Accountability have in an application requested the Chief Justice of India for permission to register a first information report (FIR) against Justice Jagdish Bhalla, senior judge of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.
They have also requested the CJI and the collegium to transfer Justice Bhalla to some other high court so that he is not able to influence the investigation.
The committee has Ram Jethmalani, Shanti Bhushan, Rajendra Sachar, DS Tewatia, Anil Divan, Indira Jaisingh, Kamini Jaiswal, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Nigam as members while Hardev Singh is the convener. The application, moved on November 1, reminding the CJI of an earlier letter apprising him of "facts regarding the improper and illegal acquisition of property" by Justice Bhalla is signed by all the members barring Indira Jaisingh, Rajendra Sachar and DS Tewatia.
The signatories to the application say, "We had requested you to get the facts investigated by investigators under the control of the Supreme Court. However, it appears that no investigation has been made in the matter and Justice Bhalla still continues to preside over the Lucknow bench as the senior judge."

Johnny Says:
# A2937LB June 3rd, 2011 at 5:36 pm

If the public official is punished, his sentence can be reduced, if he is willing to share details on other corrupt officials in the formal way of complaining to Lok Pal. This will help to identify more corrupt guys in the network.

Msr Says:
# A2920LB June 3rd, 2011 at 2:26 pm

the lokpal bill should be applied to PM, MPs and Judiciary,
so that every one should be tried for their corruption or wrong doings.