Belagavi: Despite a hue and cry from individuals and associations asking the state government to send Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao on leave to ensure a fair probe, the government does not seem to have any such plans.
Sources in the Law Department told Deccan Chronicle that there is no provision in the Lokayukta Act to send the head of the anti-corruption institution on compulsory leave. However, the government is vested with powers to take action against the Lokayukta only if he/she is guilty of ‘misbehaviour’ and 'incapacity'. But, in the case of Justice Rao, no such charges have been proved.
"It will be improper for the government to take such a decision in the absence of any concrete evidence against Lokayukta,” the source said.
New bill in offing
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra told Deccan Chronicle that the law department is in the process of formulating a new comprehensive bill that would address all contentious issues raised by members of both Houses following the corruption charges against the Lokayukta institution.
The proposed bill will cover issues like impeachment or removal of Lokayukta on charges of corruption and also sending him or her on a sabbatical to hold an impartial inquiry. It would take at least a week to prepare the new bill and to make suitable amendments to the existing Lokayukta Act, he said.The minister said that though the Lokayukta was the creation of the state Legislature in 1984, it did not deal with certain issues as the then government had not anticipated crises.
The current crisis gripping the Lokayukta institution has prompted the government to think of inserting amendments to remove all confusion and to make the anti-corruption body free of corruption charges. The new bill will be moved in the Bengaluru session of the legislature that will start next Monday. “Our government is committed to insulate the Lokayukta institution from corruption,” he said.
