what is lokpal bill

it is drafted by justice santosh hegde of karnataka, mr. sinha former vigilance officer and all other anti corruption
officer(working).

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill

1.An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be
set up

2.Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No
minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3.Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore:
Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that
the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

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

5.How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in
prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as
compensation to the complainant.

6.So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not
registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a
months time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads
been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial
will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7.But wont the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members?
That wont be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens
and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely
transparent and participatory process.

8.What if some officer in Lokpal 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.

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

10.It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are
being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.

source:http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/

loopholes of lokpal bill:

this lokpal bill will be another eyewash. why? for the following reasons:

suppose a person complains to lokpal against a corrupt officer. lokpal will do investigation within one year. as lokpal
has no right to arrest that corrupt officer, it will have to lodge an FIR to police and as it has no right to prosecute that
officer, it has to sue that corrupt person in court. so again, lokpal comes under the corrupt system it is made to
destroy. court will take years to resolve or police will do their magic.

secondly how lokpal will protect somebody if it has no special force?

so lokpal bill is again an eyewash.

what shoud be done to make lokpal a real lokpal:

lokpal should be given the following things:

1] power to arrest

2] power to prosecute

3] a force to enforce its decision.

in short the lokpal should be a judiciary cum executive body independant of the

govt.

The Disadvantages of the Indian Judicial System
The Indian judicial system is descended from British colonial rule, and many of its characteristics appear on the
surface identical to those of British courts. This British system of law, however, was unsuited to the needs of the
Indian people. Even the last colonial administrators of India so acknowledged in 1945, three years before India
gained full independence. Though it has come a long way, the Indian judicial system still lacks the resources to
meet the needs of India's more than 1 billion citizens.

Backlog of Cases
The Indian Supreme Court had almost 46,000 cases left to hear in December 2009. For lower, more local
courts, that figure ballooned to more than 29 million cases. Minor corruption, limited staffing and an
acute shortage of accomplished judges are among the reasons. In December 2009, the Law Commission
of India said there were only 10 judges for every 1 million Indian citizens.
Complexity
For many rural Indians, the Indian legal codes and justice system are too heavily laden with complex
jargon and arduous demands of time and money. Traditional methods of conflict resolution, called
"panchayats" or "dharmasatra," were discarded during British colonial rule and never reclaimed after
independence. These dispute-resolving mechanisms were inexpensive, required little specialized legal
training, and worked in a cultural context that many Indians could understand. They are no longer part of
the Indian judicial system.

The Mumbai Attacks Trial
The trial of the lone surviving gunman in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to many Indian
critics, underscored some of the weaknesses in the Indian judicial system. The defendant, Mohammed
Ajmal Amir, confessed midway through the trial, but the judge let the trial continue. No Indian lawyer
wanted to represent Amir, and his counsel had to be replaced midway. Also, many said Amir's trial was
expedited for political reasons.
Bureaucratic Battles
Lawyers, justices and journalists frequently fight in Indian courtrooms over access to information, the
overzealous use of contempt-of-court laws, and endless allegations of bribery coming from almost every
participant in the average court case. The process for removing bad judges from the bench is rarely
successful. To allege bribery of a judge requires the written consent of the nation's chief judge, a
historically unprecedented occurrence in India.