New Delhi: A parliamentary standing committee has asked for details about the functioning of the Lokpal – a statutory body under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, meant to function as an anti-corruption body. The 160th report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, tabled in Lok Sabha on March 16, has asked what was being done to set in motion the inquiry and prosecution wings of the body.Section 11 of the Lokpal Act, which deals with its statutory functions, requires the Lokpal to set up an inquiry as well as prosecution wing. The wings are to be headed by a director each, whose designated role is to conduct inquiries into corruption-related offences and prosecute public servants where needed, respectively.Notably, the anti-corruption law setting up the Lokpal came into effect from January 2014 but, as the committee report notes, the body is yet to appoint a director for its inquiry wing and staff the wing.The report notes that staffing – including appointing a director – was still “under process”. This was despite “70 regular posts” having been created for the wing with a go-ahead from the Department of Expenditure. These posts have also been “encadred”, or included within the services of the Central Secretariat – as Gazetted staff, secretarial staff, stenographers, and so on, making their roles and emoluments clear. Yet the posts remained vacant.Since the posts in the inquiry wing have not been filled though an approved organogram (organisational chart) exists, the committee has asked for the present status of the director’s appointment and the “steps taken to operationalise the inquiry wing in its full statutory form”. The committee refers to the need for the Lokpal to ensure effective coordination with other investigative agencies, a task primarily meant for the inquiry wing.With respect to the prosecution wing, constituted on June 6, 2025, the committee notes that prosecutions were at present being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The committee, therefore, demands to know the status of operationalisation of the prosecution wing of the Lokpal and “the proposed roadmap for making it fully functional”.The panel raises the issue of special courts under the Lokpal Act as well. Under Section 35, the Union government must set up these courts, on the recommendation of the Lokpal, to hold speedy trials in corruption cases. Their target is to complete cases within a year, extendable to two years.The panel points out that as per a notification under Section 35, the matter of setting up a special court had been taken up with the Delhi High Court and was being “actively pursued”.In November 2025, while hearing a petition related to an Indian Railway officer’s case, the Delhi High Court had criticised the Lokpal, saying it could not order an investigation against a public servant without affording them an opportunity for a hearing.“The statutory framework of Section 20 leaves no room for doubt that the requirement of affording an opportunity of hearing at the pre-investigation stage as well as at the post-investigation stage is mandatory,” a division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar had observed, as quoted by LiveLaw. It said that presently, “cases are being tried by special judges notified under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, pursuant to a sanction granted by the Lokpal”.The panel has accordingly sought details of the present status of consultations with the high court and the expected timeline for notification of a dedicated special court.Between April and December 2025, the Lokpal registered 318 complaints. Of these, 288 were disposed. The anti-corruption body received 292 and 166 corruption complaints during 2024-25 and 2023-24, respectively.In light of the rising trend in complaints (and hence activities related to inquiries), the standing committee recommends that the Lokpal Secretariat’s staffing position be reviewed on the whole. The Lokpal has a sanctioned strength of 65, of which 24 positions are vacant, it notes.“Vacancies in key operational and support divisions may be filled expeditiously, and necessary coordination with the concerned authorities may be undertaken to ensure that adequate manpower is made available to enable the Lokpal to discharge its statutory functions efficiently and without interruption,” it says.The Wire earlier reported that annual reports of the Lokpal had not been tabled in parliament for three years as of the winter session of parliament in 2025. This was despite the full bench of the Lokpal, comprising the chairperson and six members, having decided to present combined annual reports – for 2022-23 and 2023-24, along with 2024-25.As per the Lokpal Act, the apex anti-corruption body is mandated to submit an annual report to the President, which is to be laid on the table in both houses of parliament.The Lokpal recently came under scrutiny from activists and opposition parties for issuing a tender to procure seven BMW cars worth Rs 70 lakh each. It had planned to spend around Rs 5 crore in all for this procurement. It eventually cancelled the tender after a resolution of the full bench, and issued a corrigendum on December 16, 2025.There were delays at the Lokpal in the past as well. Its governing body appointed a chairperson and members only in March 2019 – more than five years after the 2014 Lokpal law was enacted. The idea for a Lokpal, to investigate and tackle corruption in high offices of government, itself dates back to the sixties.