The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recommended to the government to formulate a set of model guidelines in the proposed HIV/AID Bill to ensure that the persons of impeccable integrity are appointed as ombudsman in all the states and parity is maintained in respect of all matters relating to the office of ombudsman, amongst the states.

The Parliamentary panel, headed by Satish Chandra Misra, had recently given its green signal for the controversial Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 (HIV/AIDS Bill) and has recommended to the government to pass the Bill without further delay.

In the matter of appointment and functions of ombudsman, the proposed Bill, as contained in clauses 23 to 25, empowers the concerned state governments to prescribe the qualification and experience; rank of the officers to be designated; terms and condition of service; jurisdiction; the manner in which to inquire into complaints; the manner in which to maintain records; and the manner in which the complaints may be made.

The Committee observes that all the matters pertaining to appointment, qualification, jurisdiction and the manner in which ombudsman will discharge his/her functions have been delegated to the state governments and left to their discretion and this situation will certainly lead to gross variation and disparity from state to state.

The ombudsman has been mandated to inquire into the violation of the provisions of the proposed legislation which is of critical importance, the panel in its report noted.

The Committee, therefore, feels that there is an imperative need to develop a set of model guidelines in all the matters referred to above to ensure that the persons of impeccable integrity are appointed as ombudsman and parity is maintained in respect of all matters relating to the office of ombudsman, amongst the states, the panel further said in its report which was submitted to the government recently.

“The Committee, accordingly, recommends that the health ministry should formulate a set of model guidelines giving strong procedures and systems in the matter for guidance of the states in the form of executive instructions as has been done in several previous legislations. The Committee also recommends that significant and substantive matters covered in the model guidelines may be appropriately included in the Bill itself instead of leaving them for delegated legislation. The Committee, simultaneously, recommends, for the sake of clarity, that simple procedural aspects which may require periodic review may continue to remain in the domain of rule making so that frequent amendments are not warranted in the main statute,” says the report.