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Need For Lokpal: Historical Background

The document discusses the concept and historical background of the Lokpal in India. It originated from Scandinavian countries in the early 18th century as an ombudsman appointed by the king to oversee government officials. In India, the Lokpal or Lokayukta was proposed in the 1960s as an anti-corruption body to investigate corruption complaints against public officials and ensure compliance with laws. However, bills to establish a Lokpal have failed to pass in Parliament. There is a need for a Lokpal due to deficiencies in existing anti-corruption systems which lack independence and powers, and do not act as an effective deterrent against corruption.

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136 views

Need For Lokpal: Historical Background

The document discusses the concept and historical background of the Lokpal in India. It originated from Scandinavian countries in the early 18th century as an ombudsman appointed by the king to oversee government officials. In India, the Lokpal or Lokayukta was proposed in the 1960s as an anti-corruption body to investigate corruption complaints against public officials and ensure compliance with laws. However, bills to establish a Lokpal have failed to pass in Parliament. There is a need for a Lokpal due to deficiencies in existing anti-corruption systems which lack independence and powers, and do not act as an effective deterrent against corruption.

Uploaded by

tayyaba reda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The word "Lokpal" is derived from the sanskrit word "loka" meaning people and "pala" meaning

protector or caretaker. Together it means "protector of people". The aim of passing such a law is it to
eradicate corruption at all levels of the Indian polity. For a nation to develop it needs to have an
extremely well organized and meticulously planned organization. A failure of the administrative set
up reflects on the holistic growth of the state, the biggest reason for the failure of the administration
can be attributed to the ill effects of corruption. The growth of the country has been plagued by
corruption and it has extended its wings through out the entire administrative set up. To root out the
menace of corruption the institution of "ombudsman" came up and has played a great role in fighting
administrative malpractices.

Historical Background
The institution of ombudsman originated in scandinavian countries. The institution of ombudsman
first came into being in sweden in 1713 when a "chancellor of justice" was appointed by the king to
act as an invigilator to look into the functioning of a war time government. From 1713 the duty of this
ombudsman was to mainly ensure the correct conduct of royal officials. The institution of the
ombudsman was firmly incorporated into the Swedish constitution from 1809.

It was defined as the parliamentary body supervising judges, government and other officials, and
ensuring their compliance with laws and other legal regulations.

The embedding of the ombudsman in the constitution was completed by a further law specifying in
greater detail the scope of his activities and his legal authority.The institution of the ombudsman
developed and grew most significantly in the 20th century. Ombudsman institutions were on the
increase especially in the period after the Second World War when almost a hundred of them were
established. The institutions took varied forms and modifications depending on the historical, political
and social background of the given country.

In India the ombudsman is known as lokpal or lokayukata.The concept of constitutional ombudsman


was first proposed by the then law minister Ashok Kumar Sen in parliament in the early 1960s.The
term lokpal and lokayukta were coined by Dr.L.M.Singhvi as the indian model of ombudsman for the
redressal of public grievances,it was passed in loksabha In the year 1968 but it was lapsed with
dissolution of lok sabha and since then has lapsed in the lok sabha many times.

Need For Lokpal


There are several deficiencies in our anti-corruption systems because of which despite
overwhelming evidence against the corrupt, no honest investigation and prosecution takes place and
the corrupt are hardly punished. The whole anti-corruption set up ends up protecting the corrupt.

1) Lack of Independence Most of our agencies like CBI, state vigilance departments, internal
vigilance wings of various departments, Anti-corruption Branch of state police etc are not
independent. In many cases, they have to report to the same people who are either themselves
accused or are likely to be influenced by the accused. 

2) Powerless Some bodies like CVC or Lokayuktas are independent, but they do not have any
powers. They have been made advisory bodies. They give two kinds of advise to the governments –
to either impose departmental penalties on any officer or to prosecute him in court. Experience
shows that whenever any minister or a senior officer is involved, their advice is rarely followed.

3) Lack of Transparency and internal accountability In addition, there is the problem of internal
transparency and accountability of these anti-corruption agencies. Presently, there isn’t any separate
and effective mechanism to check if the staff of these anti-corruption agencies turns corrupt. That is
why, despite so many agencies, corrupt people rarely go to jail. Corruption has become a high profit
zero risk business. There is absolutely no deterrence against corruption.

4) Lack of Transparency and internal accountability In addition, there is the problem of internal
transparency and accountability of these anti-corruption agencies. Presently, there isn’t any separate
and effective mechanism to check if the staff of these anti-corruption agencies turns corrupt. That is
why, despite so many agencies, corrupt people rarely go to jail. Corruption has become a high profit
zero risk business. There is absolutely no deterrence against corruption. Our anti-corruption laws
also have several critical deficiencies, which end up protecting the corrupt. 

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