'File details related to appointment of Lokpal': Supreme Court to Centre

New Delhi, July 24: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to file a detailed affidavit giving “all particulars” of the steps being taken for setting up a search committee for suggesting probable names for the appointment of Lokpal. Describing the affidavit filed by the Centre which was read out to the court as “insufficient”, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice R. Bhanumathi and Justice Navin Sinha directed the Department of Personnel and Training to file a fresh affidavit with full particulars in four weeks time.

At the outset of the hearing, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court the meeting of the selection committee held decided to set-up the search committee and in the next meeting they would suggest names for the search committee. He told the court that 50 per cent members of the search committee will have to be from the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes.

Accusing the Centre for dragging its feet in not carrying out the legislative mandate to appoint anti-corruption watchdog Lokpal, counsel Prashant Bhushan appearing for NGO Common Cause, told the court that in last four and half years the selection committee has only senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi in the category of eminent jurist. (IANS)