Why have you not appointed Lokayuktas yet,Supreme Court Of India(SCI) asks 12 States Friday March 23,2018

The Supreme Court Of India(SCI) on Friday March 23,2018 directed Chief Secretaries of 11 States to explain the five-year delay in appointment of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokayukta and Uplokayukta.

A Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi found that several States have not moved a muscle to appoint Lokayuktas despite the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act coming into existence in 2013.

Hearing a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the court found that Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh have not appointed Lokpal, Lokayukta or Uplokayukta.

“The Chief Secretaries of the aforesaid 11 States shall inform the court within two weeks as to whether steps have been taken for appointment of Lokyukta/Uplokayukta and if so the stage thereof. The reasons for non appointment of Lokayukta/Uplokayukta in the aforesaid States be also laid before the Court in the aforesaid affidavit(s) to be filed by the Chief Secretaries,” the Bench recorded in its order.

Role of Lokpal and Lokayukta

• Lokpal is a multimember body and an active politician and a person convicted of any offence involving moral turpitude cannot become member of Lokpal.
• Similarly, every State shall establish a Lokayukta by a state act, if it is not established before passing of this act.
• Lokpal will constitute an Inquiry Wing to conduct the preliminary inquiry into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
• Jurisdiction of Lokpal includes Prime Minister, all union ministers, MPs, all officers etc.
• Powers of Lokpal includes superintendence over CBI; confiscation of assets or other benefits which have arisen by means of corruption; its Inquiry wing has powers of a civil court etc.
• Independence of Lokpal ensures that the institution isn’t prone to misuse of powers

 Reasons behind delays in appointment of Lokpal:

1. Demand to grant primacy to the CJI’s view in selecting eminent jurists as members of the search committee over the other members-The Prime Minister and the Speaker.
2. The question of who should be on the appointment panel viz- The amendments to the definition of the leader of the opposition in the Lokpal act are pending withParliament.The government argued that appointment of Lokpal requires approval of a five-member committee which also comprises of the Leader of the Opposition. However, at present no Leader of opposition exists as no party (other than ruling party) secured the 10% of total seats in Lok sabha.
3. There is no urgency visible either in the ruling government or the opposition benches when it comes to Political Will.

Other than this delay in appointment, some of the provisions of this Act also defeat its purpose.

1. This act doesn’t provide protection to whistleblowers who complaints to Lokpal or Lokayukta.
2. Although this Act covers all ministers including PM, but some crucial institutions of democracy like Judiciary, Media and NGOs are left out of this Act.
3. Since States have been given complete freedom to decide on appointment, composition and powers of Lokayukta, there are chances that Lokayukta may remain weak institutions in some states.
4. Lokpal will supervise CBI only on cases referred to it by Lokpal. However, CBI will continue to face issue of independence on other cases/issues.
5. Lokpal will look into corruption cases only after their occurrence whereas significant reduction in corruption requires preventive systemic reforms also.

 

Maharashtra was the first State to introduce Lokayukta in 1971.  However, with insufficient power, funding, staff and without an autonomous investigative agency the Lokayukta was weak.

The Karnataka’s Lokayukta, which was established in 1984, is considered to be the strongest and most effective in the country.