The new ‘Lokpal of India’? Justice A M Khanwilkar penned several orders key for Modi govt

After a gap of nearly two years, the new chairperson of the Lokpal is set to be appointed, with the selection committee shortlisting the name of former Supreme Court Justice A M Khanwilkar.

If appointed, Khanwilkar, 66, would only be the second chairperson of the Lokpal, known as the ‘Lokpal of India’. The first chairperson was former Supreme Court Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, whoheld the office from March 2019 and retired in May 2022. Former Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty has been the Acting Chairperson since.

Justice Khanwilkar, who had an over six-year stint in the Supreme Court, from May 2016 to when he retired in July 2022, was part of several key judgments, from the decriminalisation of homosexuality to tightening rules regarding foreign funding of NGOs, to upholding the constitutional validity of the strict provisions in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and upholding the Special Investigation Team’s clean chit to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 Gujarat 2002 riots.

Appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court in March 2000, Khanwilkar served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Madhya Pradesh High Court, before being elevated to the Supreme Court.

Soon after, he was a part of the majority ruling in the five-judge Bench that decided to decriminalise homosexuality. In 2018, he was part of another Constitution Bench decision, in which the Court held that the right to die with dignity formed an integral part of the right to life and liberty under Article 21, thus legalising passive euthanasia for patients with terminal illnesses.

In September 2018, Justice Khanwilkar was part of the five-judge Constitution Benches in the landmark