The leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha, the Congress, will now be part of the selection panel that decides on the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday gave its nod to a Bill seeking to include the leader of the largest opposition party in the panel in the absence of any recognised Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the House.
This clause has not gone down well with the Congress.
Initially, the amendment was for the inclusion of LoP in the panel. But today there is no LoP in the Lower House since the Congress has only 44 members in the Lok Sabha.
According to the rules, the LoP post is given only to a party which has at least 10 per cent of strength of the House.
Considering the strength of 542, a party must have at least 55 members to get the LoP post.
Since the Congress, despite being the single largest party in the House, falls short of the required numbers, the NDA government had denied it the LoP post.
The Government, it seems, wants to avoid confrontation and criticism, and thus the amendment to include the Congress’ leader in the selection panel.
The present CBI Director, Ranjit Sinha, is retiring on December 2. A selection committee has to be formed shortly to find his replacement.
Deliberate move Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the amendments have been brought by the government deliberately in order to ‘humiliate’ the Opposition.
He made a strong appeal for the withdrawal of the provision even at this late stage (when the Bill was to be passed) and bring forward a comprehensive amendment. He was supported by BJD members Tathagat Satpathy and Bhartruhari Mahtab.
However, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh insisted that there was ‘no ulterior motive’ and that the amendment was aimed only to ‘smoothen’ the process of selecting the CBI director.
The Bill was passed by voice vote but not before a division of votes on its consideration as well as an amendment moved by Satpathy, which was rejected.
Other members Now the amendment has to be approved by the Rajya Sabha, where it is likely to be moved on Thursday. Following Presidential assent, the changes will be notified.
The selection committee’s other members are the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.
Once the panel approves the name, the Appointment Committee of Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister will finalise the name and the new person will be appointed.