Hurried appointment of Lokayukta kicks up row

BANGALORE: As if the brouhaha surrounding illegal mining was not enough, a new controversy having wide ramifications seems to be brewing in the state - the appointment of the next Lokayukta and Upalokayukta.That the state government is said to have not followed established procedure - by bypassing the Opposition party leaders - while appointing retired judges Justice Shivaraj Patil and Justice R Gururajan as the new Lokayukta and Upalokayukta respectively, is said to be the eye of the storm.What is surprising is that Governor H R Bhardwaj gave his consent to the two appointments.Justice Shivaraj Patil is a retired Supreme Court judge and Justice R Gururajan is a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court.Highly placed sources told Express that the appointment of the ombudsman must be preceded by a host of procedures, including convening a meeting of a consultation committee comprising presiding officers of the state Legislature, Chief Justice of the High Court and Opposition party leaders.This has been reportedly given the miss by the state government.Confirming that the state government had not consulted anyone while appointing the new Lokayukta, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah said: “I do not know why the government bypassed procedure and conducted the matter at such a hurried pace.” He stated that he had received a letter from the government on the issue and added that the government should have convened a meeting to take a decision, which was not done.Chairman of the Legislative Council D H Shankaramurthy, who is presently in London for a conference of Commonwealth nations, expressed his ignorance on the issue.Earlier, the state government, in a letter to heads of judiciary and legislature, had solicited their opinions in the appointment of the new Lokayukta and additional Upalokayuktas. They were, however, not asked to suggest any names for the post.Meanwhile, outgoing Lokayukta Santhosh Hegde is expected to submit his voluminous report on illegal mining in the state on Wednesday.