New Delhi: When former Supreme Court judge Justice A.M. Khanwilkar took charge as chairperson of India’s Lokpal in March 2024, he wanted to see a routine document mandated by law: the Lokpal’s annual report.However, it was never found.A rare note dated November 18, 2025 accessed by The Wire revealed that there was no file, draft or note to suggest that the Lokpal had prepared its annual report for 2022–23, despite a statutory obligation to submit one each year to the president and, through her, to parliament.The note reads, “No record is available in the office with respect to preparation of Annual Report for the Year 2022-23, made by the previous body of the Lokpal.”Khanwilkar moved to plug the gap. According to the note, within six months, the Lokpal finalised a consolidated annual report covering the two years 2022–23 and 2023–24. By October 2024, the watchdog was ready to formally present the document and sought an appointment with India’s President Droupadi Murmu.This is a legally mandated step; Section 48 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 reads, “It shall be the duty of the Lokpal to present annually to the President a report on the work done by the Lokpal and on receipt of such report the President shall cause a copy thereof together with a memorandum explaining, in respect of the cases, if any, where the advice of the Lokpal was not accepted, the reason for such non-acceptance to be laid before each House of Parliament.”But the appointment never came.The note reveals that Lokpal officials wrote at least four formal letters seeking to meet the president in 2024 and 2025. The body also followed up with repeated phone calls to the president’s office, but no appointment was granted. The internal note states that the “appointment did not fructify because of her [the president’s] busy schedule”.Meanwhile, the institution completed and printed its annual report for 2024–25. More reminders were sent in 2025. The last one, dated August 25, went unanswered.President of India Droupadi Murmu. Photo: Rashtrapati Bhavan via PTIA month later, the full bench of the Lokpal took a seemingly desperate step: it decided to send all three annual reports to the president by post, along with a formal covering letter. In this rare acknowledgement dated November 18, 2025, weeks before the winter session of parliament, the Lokpal has explained a three-year delay in fulfilling its statutory obligation, noting that no annual report has been presented to parliament since 2021-2022.The note reads, “Since appointment for presentation of Annual Report for the Year 2022-23 and Year 2023-24 and also for the year 2024-25 did not materialize in spite of best possible efforts, it was decided by the Full Bench of Lokpal (Chairperson and six Members) to present both the Annual Reports (combined for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 and another for 2024-2025), with a forwarding letter and a letter of the Chairperson to the Hon’ble President of India.” (sic)The President’s Office acknowledged receipt and forwarded the documents to the Department of Personnel and Training under the Prime Minister’s Office.However, when parliament met for its winter session in December 2025, the reports were still not tabled.The Wire reached out to both the President’s Office and the Prime Minister’s Office, asking why no appointment was granted, why the annual reports weren’t tabled in parliament, and whether a timeline exists for this to be done. The Wire also reached out to the Office of the Lokpal, asking about the lack of an annual report for 2022-23 and the delay in posting the reports to the president when an appointment time was not given, and for its response to the reports not being tabled in parliament.This article will be updated when a response is received. Status of Presentation of Annual Report of the Lokpal for the Year 2022-23-2023-24 for the Year 2024-25 by The Wire Anjali Bhardwaj, a transparency rights activist labels this lapse as an act of evading accountability. She said, “It is substantive that we ask how this is being allowed?”“Lokpal is accountable to the people of India. Their reports must be made public every year. It is a mandatory requirement. This is not red tapism, it appears by design the government is showing unwillingness to comply with a law.”Bhardwaj, who has also approached the Supreme Court regarding transparency and anti-corruption issues, including the implementation of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, said, “This shows complete negligence and lack of political will on part of the government. The President is not making time to meet with Lokpal. She has to do it as head of the executive.”Sasikanth Senthil, a Congress leader and Member of Parliament representing the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency, also seconded Bhardwaj, “The president not granting time to the Lokpal for nearly two years is a clear statement of where the government stands. It’s very sad that a Supreme Court judge had to send the reports by post.”Regarding the further delay by the Department of Personnel and Training under the Prime Ministers’ Office, Bhardwaj said, “The President could have met with Lokpal earlier. The Department could have made the memo before the winter session. There is no reason for the delay. The Modi government is not serious about anti-corruption, even though his government was elected in 2014 on a plank of anti-corruption.”According to a 2014 delegation of powers on works handled by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Prime Minister Modi is the final authority on Lokpal matters.Senthil added, “The decline of democracy has been very evident in the way institutions have been compromised. This lapse is one such case of compromise.”“This is a living example of the BJP government’s stance on corruption,” he continued.Critics argue that without regular scrutiny by parliament, the Lokpal is insulated from accountability. Annual reports are the primary democratic tool for accountability, especially for powerful, independent institutions like the Lokpal. They enable parliamentary oversight and create a public record. They also expose executive resistance. Section 48 of the Lokpal Act specifically requires a memorandum explaining why the government rejected Lokpal’s advice, if it did.Bhardwaj added that as per the law, a memorandum has to be tabled along with the report. “Under the law Lokpal is supposed to present these reports to the President, the head of the executive. The executive has to look at these annual reports, and give reasons and explanations regarding which government departments did not accept the advice of Lokpal and table it eventually to parliament for public oversight.”“However, the reality is there are hardly any questions, debates or discussions in parliament. The parliament should be demanding these reports,” she added.The previous Lokpal reports were also significantly delayed. The first annual report of Lokpal was released in 2021 after the government accepted in the Rajya Sabha that, since Lokpal’s inception, no annual report has been filed.Senthil alleged that the missing Lokpal reports sit in the larger frame of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government trying to bypass the parliament. “Lokpal is an ombudsman; it is not supposed to be under anybody’s control. It has public concerns. If its reports will not be tabled in parliament, where will they be tabled?”The previous Lokpal reports have accounted for its budget along with details and status of complaint resolution, including total number of complaints received, processed and disposed of. It also accounts for how many Lokpal inquiries were ordered, and how many public servants were deposed. Most importantly, it shares how many complaints were received against members of parliament, Union and state government officers, and against government bodies. The report also highlights the nature of complaints, such as wrongful action or inaction by officers, criminal misappropriation, undue benefits, bribing, etc.Questions have been raised by critics about the Lokpal’s functioning. Since it became operational in 2019, nearly six years after the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was passed, India’s Lokpal has struggled to translate its sweeping mandate into tangible outcomes. While the institution has received thousands of complaints alleging corruption against public servants, including senior officials, the overwhelming majority have been dismissed at preliminary stages, often on technical grounds such as jurisdiction, format or lack of supporting material. Parliamentary committees have repeatedly flagged this, noting that the Lokpal had failed to secure even a single prosecution in its initial years.Calling Lokpal a token agency, Senthil said, “That’s how anti-corruption agencies are treated in India. Which government would do this? A government that has many things to hide.”The Lokpal’s performance has also been marked by structural and institutional constraints that have limited its impact. Vacancies, delays in appointments, procedural bottlenecks and reliance on external agencies for investigation have slowed inquiries, while the absence or delay of annual reports has weakened parliamentary oversight of its functioning.Prashant Bhushan, advocate in the Supreme Court, said, “This is clear that since the inception of the Lokpal Act in 2013, the Modi government has tried its best to defunct it. After the passing of the Act, no Lokpal was appointed for five years. Even when the appointment came, they were not given any office space and worked out of a five-star hotel in New Delhi and now they are not able to fulfill their basic statutory responsibilities. The missing annual reports show that Lokpal has not done even its basic job.”So far, three annual reports have been filed and presented to former President Ram Nath Kovind in 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 by former Lokpal Pinaki Chandra Ghose. After his tenure ended on May 27, 2022, no Lokpal was appointed until 2024. Justice Khanwilkar took charge on March 10, 2024, as chairperson.Bhushan questioned Khanwilkar’s credibility as a Lokpal and said, “Khanwilkar has given several rulings in favor of the government. He wrote the judgment for the infamous Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali case in 2019, making bail conditions even more stringent in UAPA cases. He also gave a judgment upholding the stringent provisions in PMLA cases.”He added, “Why couldn’t the Lokpal send the report by post before? It’s Lokpal’s primary responsibility mandated by the law. Khanwilkar is doing exactly what the government wants him to do, which is to do nothing. Lokpal is not bothered about any report. It’s passing the buck on other departments while drawing a salary and perks from taxpayers’ money.”Bhushan added, “Effectively, Lokpal needs a Lokpal to hold it accountable.”Srishti Jaswal is an independent journalist.