Supreme Court judge says PM should come 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. HT reports.

A sitting Supreme Court judge on Friday said the prime minister should come under the purview of the lokpal bill.

HT Image

"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 Human Rights 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.