Justice AM Khanwilkar is the head of the Lokpal
On Tuesday, the anti-corruption watchdog Lokpal named former Supreme Court judge AM Khanwilkar as his successor, almost two years after Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose resigned. Following Justice Ghose’s tenure ending on May 27, 2022, the interim chairman of the Lokpal has been Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, a member of the judiciary.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan declared that President Droupadi Murmu was happy to choose Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar as the Lokpal’s chairman. July 2022 marked Justice Khanwilkar’s retirement from the Supreme Court.
According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué, former chief justices of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, Allahabad High Court, and Karnataka High Court, Lingappa Narayana Swamy, Sanjay Yadav, and Ritu Raj Awasthi, have been named as judicial members of the Lokpal. At the moment, Justice Awasthi serves as the Chairman of the Indian Law Commission.
Non-judicial members include former Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Pankaj Kumar, Madhya Pradesh Cadre IAS, and former Secretary of Women and Child Development Ajay Tirkey. The dates on which they take over as head of their respective offices mark the effective date of the appointments. The President appoints the chairman and members of the Lokpal based on the recommendations of a Selection Committee, which is chaired by the Prime Minister. The Lokpal may consist of eight members, four of whom must be judicial and four of whom must be non-judicial.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which was enacted in 2013, was signed into law on January 16, 2014, after receiving presidential assent on January 1, 2014. But it took more than five years to choose former Supreme Court judge Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose as the first Chairperson of Lokpal, who was appointed in March 2019.
