Ex-AG Rohatgi on Lokpal selection panel

New Delhi, May 15: The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has been appointed to the Lokpal Selection Committee as an eminent jurist.

Rohatgi served as India’s 14th Attorney General from June 2014 to June 2017.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi was told that Rohatgi was selected by a committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra at their April 10 meeting.

That meeting was not attended by Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge as he was called not as a member of the selection panel but as a special invitee.

Kharge stayed away from the March 1 meeting of the selection panel on the same grounds.

Justice Gogoi said that it was expected that eminent persons on the selection committee will be alive to the urgency to appoint the Lokpal.

However, the apex court refused to give directions on the time frame for the appointment of the Lokpal which, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said, would take some time.

Venugopal had during a hearing on April 17 told the court that the Selection Committee’s meeting on April 10 recommendations for appointment of an eminent jurist on the panel had been made and approval of the said recommendation was pending. IANS