Amended Rules: Lokpal chairperson could now be selected from a smaller pool of shortlisted candidates

THE government last month quietly amended earlier rules regarding search committee for choosing Lokpal chairperson and members, making it easier for the selection panel to finalize the chairperson and members from a fewer number of short-listed persons. According to a notification dated August 27, 2014, the words “The Search Committee shall” got substituted by the words “The Search Committee shall, as far as possible,” making it flexible for the search panel to recommend…
less than five names for consideration of the post of Lokpal chairperson, and less than three names for the post of members.
Earlier, according to a notification dated January 17, 2014, it was stated that the search committee shall recommend a panel of at least five names in case of chairperson of Lokpal and three names in case of a Member. But according to an amendment of the Search Committee (Constitution, Terms and Conditions of appointment of members and the manner of selection of Panel of Names for appointment of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal) Rules, 2014, notified on August 27, 2014, that stringent norm of choosing the chairperson from a pool of five distinguished persons was done away with.
Now, Rule 11, sub-rule (2) gets amended. It says: “…in the opening portion, for the words “The Search Committee shall”, the words “The Search Committee shall, as far as possible,” shall be substituted”.
Significantly, in the process of this amendment, one grammatically incorrect line was also corrected. In the earlier rule, it was said that search committee shall recommend, “(b) in case of Members of Lokpal, a panel containing at least three times the number of vacancies advertised”. Now the amended rules say: “…clause (b), for the words “a panel containing at least three times the number of vacancies advertised”, the words “a panel containing names at least three times the number of vacancies to be filled” shall be substituted.
In fact, DoPT secretary is the ex-officio convener of the search panel. And one member of the selection panel is made the chairperson of the search panel. Significantly, according to the amended rules, the total members of the search panel will now be seven, as against eight earlier.