Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Common Cause A Registered Society vs Ajay Mittal on 7 March, 2019
Bench: Chief Justice, S. Abdul Nazeer, Sanjiv Khanna
CONMT.PET.(C) 714/2018
1
ITEM NO.1 COURT NO.1 SECTION PIL-W
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
CONMT.PET.(C) No. 714/2018 in W.P.(C) No. 245/2014
COMMON CAUSE A REGISTERED SOCIETY Petitioner
VERSUS
AJAY MITTAL Respondent
(FOR ADMISSION)
Date : 07-03-2019 This matter was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. ABDUL NAZEER
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA
For Petitioner
Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR
Mr. Rohit Kumar Singh, Adv.
Ms. Cheryl D’Souza, Adv.
Mr. Govind Jee, Adv.
For Respondent
Mr. K.K. Venugopal, AG
Mr. V. Shyam Mohan, Adv.
Mr. Ritesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
We are informed by the learned Attorney General for India that the Chairperson of the Search Committee by a communication dated 28.2.2019 has informed that they have forwarded three panels of names to be considered by the Selection Committee for appointment of the Chairperson, Judicial Member(s) and Non-Judicial Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by Member(s). The deliberations of the Search Committee, DEEPAK GUGLANI Date: 2019.03.07 16:33:45 IST Reason: therefore, are complete.
Learned Attorney General has submitted that as the Selection Committee would be in seisin of the CONMT.PET.(C) 714/2018 2 matter, this contempt petition may appropriately be closed.
Mr. Prashant Bhushan, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner has submitted that further steps are required to be taken in the matter of constitution of the Lokpal and at this stage, the names enlisted should be put in the public domain. In this regard, Mr. Bhushan has drawn the attention of the Court to Section 4(4) of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 which is in the following terms:-
“4(4) The Selection Committee shall regulate its own procedure in a transparent manner for selecting the Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal.” We have considered the matter. At this stage, the order which we consider appropriate to pass is to request the learned Attorney General to inform the Court within ten days from today about the possible date of convening a meeting of the Selection Committee for finalization of the names for constitution of the Lokpal.
So far as the prayer of Mr. Bhushan, learned counsel, for putting the names recommended by the Search Committee in the public domain is concerned, we have considered the provisions of Section 4(4) of the Act and it is our considered view that no direction from the Court should be issued in this regard. Rather the matter should be left for a just determination by the Selection Committee as and when the meeting of the Committee is convened.
List the matter after ten days.
(Deepak Guglani) (Anand Prakash)
Court Master Court Master