{"id":21018,"date":"2025-01-18T08:24:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T02:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21018"},"modified":"2025-04-06T09:14:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T03:44:26","slug":"lokpal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/lokpal\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Lokpal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Lokpal:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>statutory body<\/strong> established under the <strong>Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mandate<\/strong>: To <strong>inquire into allegations of corruption against<\/strong> certain <strong>public functionaries<\/strong> and for related matters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Organisational Structure:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It consists of a <strong>chair person and eight Members,<\/strong> out of whom <strong>four are Judicial Members.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Chairperson<\/strong> should be <strong>either the former Chief Justice of India,or a former Judge of the Supreme Court<\/strong>, <strong>or an eminent person<\/strong> who fulfills the eligibility criteria as specified.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>judicial member<\/strong> of the Lokpal should be e<strong>ither a former Judge of the Supreme Court <\/strong>or a <strong>former Chief Justice of a High Court<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>A minimum of <strong>fifty percent <\/strong>of the Members will be from<strong> SC\/ST\/OBC\/Minorities and women.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>How are members appointed?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Chairperson and the Members are <strong>appointed by the President <\/strong>of India on the <strong>recommendation of a selection committee composed of<\/strong> the <strong>Prime Minister<\/strong> as the Chairperson, the <strong>Speaker of Lok Sabha,<\/strong> the <strong>Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha,<\/strong> the <strong>Chief Justice of India<\/strong> or a <strong>Judge nominated by him<\/strong>\/her, and <strong>one eminent jurist.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They hold office for a <strong>term of five years<\/strong> from the date on which they enter upon the office <strong>or until they attain<\/strong> the age of <strong>70 years<\/strong>, whichever is earlier.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The salary, allowances, and other<strong> conditions of services of the Chairperson<\/strong> are the <strong>same as <\/strong>that of the<strong> Chief Justice of India<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The salary, allowances, and other <strong>conditions of services of the members<\/strong> are the <strong>same as <\/strong>that of a<strong> Judge of the Supreme Court<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jurisdiction<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>It has jurisdiction to inquire into allegations of corruption against anyone who is or has been <strong>Prime Minister<\/strong>, a <strong>Minister <\/strong>in the Union government, or a <strong>Member of Parliament, <\/strong>as well as <strong>officials of the Union Government under Groups A, B, C, and D.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It covers c<strong>hairpersons, members, officers, and directors of any board, corporation, society, trust, or autonomous body<\/strong> either <strong>established by an Act<\/strong> of Parliament <strong>or wholly or partly funded by the Union or State<\/strong> government.<\/li>\n<li>It also <strong>covers any society, trust, or body that receives a foreign contribution above Rs 10 lakh.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>complaint<\/strong> under the Lokpal Act should be in the prescribed form and <strong>must pertain to an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,<\/strong> against a public servant.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>There is <strong>no restriction on who can make such a complaint.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>When a complaint is received, the <strong>Lokpal may order a preliminary inquiry<\/strong> by its Inquiry Wing or any other agency <strong>or refer it for investigation by any agency, including the CBI<\/strong>, if there is a prima facie case.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Lokpal, with <strong>respect to Central government servants<\/strong>, shall <strong>refer the complaints to<\/strong> the <strong>Central Vigilance Commission<\/strong> (CVC).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exceptions for Prime Minister:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Lokpal <strong>cannot inquire into allegations<\/strong> against the PM re<strong>lating to international relations, external and internal security, public order, atomic energy, and space<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Also, <strong>complaints<\/strong> against the PM are <strong>not to be probed unless the full Lokpal bench considers the initiation of the inquiry and at least 2\/3rds of the members approve it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Powers of Lokpal:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It has powers to <strong>superintendence over and to give direction to the CBI.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>If it has referred a case to the CBI, the <strong>investigating officer in such a case cannot be transferred without the approval of Lokpal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Powers to authorize CBI for search and seizure <\/strong>operations connected to such cases.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Inquiry Wing of the Lokpal<\/strong> has been vested with the <strong>powers of a civil court<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Lokpal has <strong>powers of confiscation of assets, proceeds, receipts, and benefits<\/strong> arisen or <strong>procured by means of corruption<\/strong> in special circumstances.<\/li>\n<li>Lokpal has the power to <strong>recommend the transfer or suspension of public servants<\/strong> connected with the allegation of corruption.<\/li>\n<li>Lokpal has the power to <strong>give directions to prevent the destruction of records<\/strong> during the preliminary inquiry.<\/li>\n<li>In terms of Section 48 of the said Act, the Lokpal is req<strong>uired to present annually to the President a report <\/strong>on the work done by it, <strong>which is<\/strong> caused to be <strong>laid in both the Houses of the Parliament.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q<\/strong>1: Who was the first Lokpal in India?<\/h3>\n<p>The first Lokpal of India was Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose. He was appointed as the Chairperson of Lokpal on March 19, 2019. Justice Ghose was a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India and also served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) before his appointment as Lokpal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2093664\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lokpal is a statutory body established under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}