related stories DMK supports bringing PM under Lokpal
A sitting Supreme Court judge on Friday said the prime minister should come under the purview of the lokpal bill. "There is no substance in the discussion that the prime minister should be out of the lokpal bill,” justice AK Ganguly said at a book release function of Corruption and HumanRights in India by C Raj Kumar, vice-chancellor of OP Jindal Global University. He, however, added that this was his personal view.
Though justice Ganguly did not specifically comment on bringing the judiciary under the lokpal, he said: “Anyone holding a public office can’t shy away from public scrutiny.”
Justice Ganguly, who is a part of the bench monitoring the 2G scam probe, criticised the Prevention of Corruption Act, saying it had an in-built mechanism to protect the corrupt.
"Unless there is sanction, you can’t prosecute a corrupt person. But who will give the sanction?” he said, adding that prosecution requests are either kept pending or refused.
Vice-president M Hamid Ansari, who released the book, Congress MP Naveen Jindal, other judges and academic personalities were also present.
A bill to eliminate corruption has been introduced into the lower house of India's parliament, but critics including lawyers and human rights activists are skeptical of the measures contained.

The Draft , introduced into parliament on Thursday, seeks to establish an ombudsman, or Lokpal, to investigate wrongdoing by government and officials. It comes after decades of campaigning against government corruption and the hunger strike of anti-corruption activist  earlier this year.

But the bill has been heavily criticized by Indian activists and lawyers who claim that it does not meet the needs of the people and will not free the country from corruption.

The exemption of the prime minister and other members of parliament from being investigated will prevent it from working successfully, they argue. "There is no substance in the discussion that the prime minister should be out of the Lokpal Bill," a judge on the  said on Wednesday, speaking outside his official capacity.

Following his hunger strike in April, Hazare pushed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to re-introduce the Lokpal Bill into Parliament. But he has condemned its current form calling it "a cruel joke." Hazare will again protest to have the draft bill revised and changed. "I will start my hunger strike from August sixteenth," he said.

, general secretary of the , yesterday said that the bill will set up "a very weak Lokpal – a Lokpal that has no effective powers". He also said that allowing government officials to appoint the Lokpal would affect its independence. 

After meeting with lawyers of the  Friday, members from , a citizen's movement, said that the lawyers agreed that the introduced Lokpal Bill would not get rid of corruption in India. 

Mark Dummit, from ''The BBC'', said that there is no guarantee that the bill will be passed. Past attempts have been denied by the upper house of Parliament since 1969.


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