New Delhi: Retired Supreme Court Judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose is set to be the country’s first Lokpal, or the anti-corruption ombudsman. The other members of the Lokpal would include four former High Court Judges, including a woman Judge, and four former civil servants. The selection was made weeks after the February-end deadline set by the    Supreme Court.

Justice Ghose’s name was finalised and recommended by the Selection Committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a couple of days ago. Passed in 2013, the Lokpal Act involves the setting up of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in States to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants.

Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose was born in a lawyer’s family on May 28, 1952. His father, Late Justice Shambhu Chandra Ghose, was a former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. After graduating in Commerce from St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, Justice Ghose obtained a degree in law and attorney-at-law from Calcutta University and then enrolled himself as an advocate with the Bar Council of West Bengal in 1976.

His areas of specialisation were civil, company affairs, arbitration and constitution, among others. He became a Judge of the Calcutta High Court in July 1997. He was transferred to Andhra Pradesh High Court in June 2012 and in December of the same year he was elevated as Chief Justice of that court.

In March 2013, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He retired in May 2017. Currently he is a member of National Human Rights Commission.