IMPORTANT POINTS
Exercise of amendment of Act must be allowed to be completed without any intervention of Court. Reading down a statute to make it workable during pendency of its amendment also will not be justified.
A law duly enacted, enforced and workable should be given effect to notwithstanding pendency of amendment to make it more efficient.
Amendment in enacted law is a perpetual and ongoing exercise dictated by the experiences gained on the working of the Act. Such attempts cannot halt operation and execution of the law already given effect to and brought into force.

JUDGMENT :

Ranjan Gogoi, J.

1. Writ Petition (Civil) No.245 of 2014 has been filed seeking a declaration that Rule 10(1) and Rule 10(4)(i) of the Search Committee (Constitution, Terms and Conditions of Appointment of Members and the Manner of Selection of Panel of Names for Appointment of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal) Rules, 2014 (hereinafter referred to as the “Search Committee Rules”) framed under the provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) are ultra vires and for a further direction to restrain the initiation of any process of selection for appointment of Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal under the provisions of the aforesaid Search Committee Rules.

2. There is no manner of doubt that the aforesaid grievance of the writ petitioner has been taken care of by the Search Committee (Amendment) Rules, 2014 which has deleted the following words in sub-rule (1) of Rule 10:-

“from amongst the list of persons provided by the Central Government in the Department of Personnel and Training”

Sub-rule (4) of Rule 10 of the Search Committee Rules has also been since deleted.

3. Notwithstanding the above, it is urged on behalf of the writ petitioner that the provisions of the Act are yet to be implemented and the Selection Committee/Search Committee under the Act are yet to be constituted so as to further the appointment of the Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal.

4. As in the connected case i.e. Writ Petition No.673 of 2015 filed by Youth for Equality the prayers made are precisely to the above effect, we have permitted the learned counsel for the writ petitioner in Writ Petition (Civil) No.245 of 2014 to address the Court on the aforesaid issue also.

5. The reliefs sought in Transferred Case No.109 of 2015 and in Transferred Case arising out of Transfer Petition (Civil) No.1264 of 2014 are same and similar to those made in Writ Petition (Civil) No.245 of 2014.

6. Shri Shanti Bhushan, learned Senior Counsel, who has advanced the lead arguments, has submitted that the Act had been brought into force on 16th January, 2014 by a notification issued in the Official Gazette by the Government of India. Despite efflux of a long period of time the provisions of the Act have not been implemented. It is argued that though the version of the official respondents is that certain provisions of the Act need to be altered to make the provisions thereof workable in a meaningful manner, the very fact that the Amendment Bill [Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014] has been gathering dust from the date of its introduction in the Parliament (18th December, 2014) would sufficiently demonstrate the lack of executive/legislative will to give effect to a salutary enactment en-grafting a vital requirement of democratic functioning of the Government, namely, accountability of the political executive and those in high echelons of public office, to an independent body i.e. Lokpal. Shri Shanti Bhushan has also urged that incongruities, inconsistencies and inadequacies in the Act as perceived by the respondents are primarily with regard to the absence of a Leader of Opposition in the present House of People/Lok Sabha (hereinafter referred to as “LOP”) who is also to act as a Member of the Selection Committee under Section 4 of the Act. This, according to Shri Bhushan, is a pretence and/or sham inasmuch as by Section 2 of the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 (hereinafter referred to as “the 1977 Act”) the term 'Leader of the Opposition” is defined to mean as under:-

“2. Definition.-In this Act, “Leader of the Opposition”, in relation to either House of Parliament, means that member of the Council of States or the House of the People, as the case may be, who is, for the time being, the Leader in that House of the Party in opposition to the Government