PANJIM: The State government on Wednesday informed the High Court of Bombay at Goa that process to appoint next Lokayukta has commenced. Advocate General Devidas Pangam made the submission before the division bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice M S Jawalkar in response to a petition filed by Advocate Rodrigues about delay in initiating the process.
The court has adjourned the matter to September 23. Rodrigues had last month moved the High Court over government’s failure to initiate the process of selecting the new Lokayukta despite the current incumbent Justice P K Misra due to retire on September 17.
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The petitioner alleged that government is reportedly not keen to appoint the next Lokayukta so as to give public officials a free hand to indulge in acts of corruption and maladministration. If process is further delayed, he said, the functioning of the Lokayukta and cases currently pending before it would come to a grinding halt.
Incidentally, the Goa Lokayukta Act initially required that the Lokayukta should be a retired High Court Judge but by an amendment brought by then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2013 the Lokayukta has now to be a retired Judge of the Supreme Court or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sudarshen Reddy was on March 8, 2013 appointed as Goa’s first Lokayukta. Within six months on September 18, 2013 Reddy without citing any reasons resigned. Three years later the current incumbent Justice Misra on April 24, 2016 was appointed as Goa’s second Lokayukta.
