Final draft of Jan Lokpal Bill by Friday after law department's nod

NEW DELHI: The Jan Lokpal bill drafts prepared by the panel appointed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal are now with the law department which will vet the various suggestions/provisions to give the bill its final shape. As the deadline of January 15 for readying the draft ended, the CM expressed confidence that the bill will soon be ready and told the press that the "chief secretary has told me that he will submit the draft on Thursday or Friday".

Sources in the government said all the recommendations enlisted by the chief secretary-led committee have been sent to the law department. Once the department gives its nod, the bill will be ready to be tabled. "Jan Lokpal is a foolproof mechanism to address corruption. It is a standalone department to combat corruption. Therefore, even non-performance will be treated as corruption qua the citizen's charter," said law minister Somnath Bharti.

He emphasized that till now nothing has been finalized because the government's legal wing is yet to analyse the suggestions which need to be harmonized with the existing laws and legal set-up to ensure there is no contradiction or that it doesn't run into trouble later in courts. "Naturally, we won't try to do anything which is anti-Constitution or anti-law. Each provision will be minutely examined. At the same time, we can't let our spirit be caught up in red tape," he said.

Committee member advocate Rahul Mehra told TOI that the panel began its final consultation at 10.30 in the morning and has now submitted the drafts to the government.

"The bill with our recommendations is now with the government. They will deliberate on our version of the bill and give a final draft that should be ready in a day or two," committee member advocate Rahul Mehra said, adding that in each and every way the Bill will be a landmark one. Earlier, chief secretary S K Srivastava told the media that "80% of the work on the first draft of the bill has been completed".

The committee includes secretaries of urban development and law and finance departments besides Mehra. In its election manifesto, AAP had promised passage of the anti-graft bill if voted to power. Soon after winning the confidence vote in the assembly, Kejriwal had termed the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill as the "most important issue" on the agenda of his government.

Arvind Kejriwal also clarified that the anti-corruption ombudsman will be totally independent and have powers to investigate even the CM.