Lokpal member Dilip B Bhosale resigns

Lokpal member Justice Dilip B Bhosale has resigned from the post citing personal reasons, official sources said on Thursday (January 9).

Justice Bhosale had sent his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday, they said.

“He has resigned from the post of Lokpal member due to some personal reasons,” the sources told PTI, without elaborating.

Former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Bhosale was administered the oath of office by Lokpal chairman Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose on March 27, 2019.

The 63-year-old Bhosale, who comes from a family of freedom fighters, has served as judge of high courts of Bombay and Karnataka and as acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for a period of 15 months (2015-2016).

According to rules, there is a provision for a chairperson and a maximum of eight members in the Lokpal panel. Of these, four need to be judicial members.

All the eight Lokpal members were administered the oath of office by Justice Ghose on March 27.

Besides Bhosale, former chief justices of different high courts — Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Abhilasha Kumari and Ajay Kumar Tripathi — had taken oath as judicial members of the Lokpal.

The first woman chief of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Archana Ramasundaram, ex-Maharashtra chief secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, former IRS officer Mahender Singh and Gujarat cadre ex-IAS officer Indrajeet Prasad Gautam were sworn-in as the Lokpal’s non-judicial members.

The Lokpal Act, which envisages appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants, was passed in 2013.