BENGALURU: Will the former lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao be the first judge in the country after Independence to face trial in a court of law? Sources in the government told this newspaper that the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (DP&AR) is sieving through the 500-page document, which was sent by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on February 11 to the government seeking permission under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to prosecute the former anti corruption ombudsman and retired chief justice of Karnataka in the First Information Report (FIR) 56/2015.
The FIR was registered by the Lokayukta police in July last year in the multi-crore extortion and corruption racket in the Lokayukta against former joint commissioner and public relations officer, Lokayukta Syed Riyazathullah, Ashok Kumar, Srinivasa Gowda, Shankare Gowda, V. Bhaskar alias 420 Bhaskar and Justice Rao's son Y. Ashwin in the extortion racket. Later the case was transferred to the SIT.
"The Department is examining the SIT submission for prosecution under the backdrop of the 2015 Supreme Court judgement on 197 CrPC. The examination will take some time because the government would not like to be hauled up later for an oversight or an error of judgment, while granting permission for prosecution of a judge," said an official source. "The final sanction for prosecution will however, rest with the Governor, who is the appointing authority after the government gives its nod to the SIT," he added.
The SIT has sought permission to prosecute the former lokayukta under most of the sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code under which the other accused have been booked in the case. Besides the investigating team has also sought permission to chargesheet Justice Rao under Sections 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) and 217 (public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture) of the IPC.
