Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. (File Photo)
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has been appointed as an eminent jurist in the Lokpal selection committee, the Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court.
Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi that the Lokpal Selection Committee, comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Lok Sabha Speaker, had met on May 11 to appoint Rohatgi.
The post had fallen vacant following the death of the former member, senior advocate P P Rao, in September 2017.
Rohatgi was appointed the attorney general by the Narendra Modi government in 2014. He had quit in June last year.
Venugopal told the bench that the selection committee would now constitute a search committee that “would recommend persons for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal, which again will be considered by the selection committee”.
The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by NGO Common Cause, which raised the issue of non-appointment of the Lokpal despite the apex court’s verdict of April 27 last year.
Taking note of the Centre’s submissions, the court noted that more than an year had passed since its April 2017 order. However, it stopped short of passing any directions for completing the process. The court will take up the matter on July 2.
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