What is the Jan Lokpal Bill?

What is the Jan Lokpal Bill?

It is a Bill drafted by Santosh Hegde, former Supreme Court judge and the present Lokayukta of Karnataka; Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court lawyer; and Magsaysay Award winner and social activist Arvind Kejriwal.

According to 'India Against Corruption', the web site where the Bill has been made public, the Jan Lokpal Bill, once passed, will be an "act to create effective anti-corruption and grievance redressal systems at the centre so that effective deterrent is created against corruption and to provide effective protection to whistleblowers".

The salient features of the Bill can be summed up as follows:

1. An institution called 'Lokpal' in the centre and 'Lokayukta' in each state will be set up. These will be independent of the government. No minister can influence their investigations.

2. Investigation in any case must be completed in one year. Trials should be completed in the next one year so that the corrupt officer or politician goes to jail in two years.

3. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

4. If a citizen's request is not completed in the prescribed time in any government office, the Lokpal will impose a financial penalty on the guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant. So, when the Bill is enforced, you could approach the Lokpal if your passport or voter card is being delayed unnecessarily. The Lokpal will have to get it done in a month's time.

5. What if a Lokpal officer becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

6. All existing anti-corruption agencies -- CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI -- will be merged into the Lokpal, which will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

7. The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment