Guidelines on police reforms may overlap with Lokpal Bill

The court had already set up an expert committee under former Supreme Court judge,Justice K T Thomas,who had filed an extensive report recommending reforms across states.

The Supreme Court today expressed second thoughts about going ahead with passing guidelines on sweeping police reforms based on a PIL pending for several years,saying it did not want any conflict or overlap with the provisions of the Lokpal Bill pending in House.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia said the court did not want to pass any guidelines for implementation only to find that they have impinged on the Lokpal Bill finally enacted by the Parliament.

At the end of the day we should not face the situation that a law comes after we have gone through everything… Please tell us what areas we can go into. Our brief was to give guidelines until the law comes. Will the present Lokpal Bill impinge on any of the areas we are concerned with,there should not be any overlap or conflict, the Bench observed.

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The court had already set up an expert committee under former Supreme Court judge,Justice K T Thomas,who had filed an extensive report recommending reforms across states.

The court also enquired whether suggestions to include the CBI Director under the Lokpal Bill has been included. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan who appears in the PIL for petitioner Prakash Singh said the final shape of the legislation may affect control over CBI.

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