Political Career for Indian Youth- Lokpal-Public Cosultation

Joint Drafting Committee for the Lokpal Bill – Process for Public Consultation

India got a low score of 3.3 (on 10) and ranks 87 out of 178 countries on the corruption perception index. Understandably corruption is a rallying point that cuts across class, caste and other divides. Anna Hazare’s fast caught the imagination of vast sections of the urban population and has ensured momentum for the passage of the Lokpal Bill. However, now that there is general agreement about the passage of a strong lok pal Bill, the content and provisions of such legislation become crucially important. What will these provisions be, and how will they be decided?

The purpose of the inclusion of civil society representatives in the Joint Drafting Committee of the Lokpal Bill was to ensure that a strong effective anti-corruption Bill was drafted- based on the expertise and commitment of a broad cross section of citizens in India. Given the scope of the proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill, there needs to be an even greater effort to get as many inputs from as many sectors as possible- especially from those who have been engaged in these issues for many years, as well as those individuals and organizations who have been engaged in fighting corruption, and understand its dangers and challenges. A public mandate for the civil society representatives is to ensure the integrity and transparency of the drafting process, and through that draw on the expertise of people, campaigns and movements. While the Jan Lokpal Bill might be the basis for discussion, the effort should be to open to the views and suggestions of all those who clearly share a commitment to fight corruption. Therfore the debate needs to be open and inclusive- not confined to negotiate agreement on the Jan Lokpal draft as already drafted (on which considerable difference of opinion exists even within the “civil society”).

The Gazette notification for the Joint Drafting Committee (JDC) for the Lokpal Bill issued on April 9, 2011 states that “The Joint Drafting Committee shall commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation” (emphasis added). The Prime Minister in his statement on the same day said, “The fact that civil society and Government have joined hands to evolve a consensus to move this historic legislation augurs well for our democracy […] I hope that the process of preparing this legislation will move forward in a constructive mode so that after consultation with a wide spectrum of stake holders the legislation is placed before the cabinet” (emphasis added).

It is evident from the above that the drafting procedure is not confined by precedent and that extensive public consultations must take place before the legislation is taken up by the cabinet. The Joint Drafting Committee has met three times; however there is little clarity about the modalities of the consultation and drafting process to be followed by the JDC. Some of the issues that need elucidation are as under:

1. The Terms of Reference and the procedure to prepare the draft for the Jan Lokpal Bill

The process of public consultation to be followed by the Joint Drafting Committee
The process of public dissemination for the proceedings of the meetings, including decisions, resolutions, minutes, documents and other background material used in the meeting.
The process by which the public can provide feedback and comments to the Joint Committee
This includes an understanding that the Joint drafting Committee will institutionalize these processes- all these could begin with an official web site of the JDC where people could go to access information, and provide feedback