Fill up Lokayukta vacancies: Karnataka High Court to state government

Bengaluru: The Karnataka high court on Wednesday asked the state government to take suitable steps to fill up all the sanctioned posts in the Lokayukta establishment.

The court was hearing the plea of a government employee seeking to quash the proceedings against him by the Lokayukta on the grounds of delay in probing the case against him.
The court also suggested the state to frame suitable guidelines on the lines of CBI to probe graft case in a stipulated time period.

Meanwhile the court has also sought to know the steps taken by it with regard to sanction sought by the Lokayukta to prosecute corrupt officials.

The court asked the state to fill up the vacancies after it was informed that at least 200 posts in the Lokayukta establishment were vacant. The court further asked the state to provide the list of vacant posts.

The court took state and Lokayukta institution to task for delay in dealing with cases. While pointing out a case pending since 1996 where the petitioner had sought to quash proceeding, citing delay in prosecution, the court observed, “If delay is leading to quashing of case, then it is not a good message to society. How can there be a delay in trap case.”

Citing an eight-year-old case where an interim stay was granted, the court said, “We granted an interim order, but Lokayukta never came seeking to vacate the stay. Don’t you think it is lapse on part of the institution? It is easy to demolish an institution, but it is difficult to build faith. It takes decades,” the court observed and adjourned the matter.