On the last day of the Budget Session, the Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday passed amendments in the lokayukta Act which would minimise the roles of the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court in the appointment of the State lokyukta.
The amendment Bill was passed with majority BJP members voting for it while the Opposition Congress legislators staged a walkout in protest. The newly formed Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) too described the amendments as ‘anti-people’.
The appointment of the lokayukta in the State had become the subject of confronation between Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Governor Kamla Beniwal ever since the latter had unilaterally appointed Justice (retired) RA Mehta as the lokayukta in August 2011 without any consultation with the Council of Ministers.
Bitter legal battles followed over the controversial appointment for more than a year, finally culminating into the Supreme Court upholding the decision of the Governor. A curative petition by the State Government is currently pending in the apex court.
The amended lokayukta Aayog Bill, 2013, which replaces the earlier Gujarat lokayukta Act, 1986, turns the corruption watchdog body into a multi-member commission whose appointment would be done by a selection committee to be headed by the Chief Minister.
Under the new provisions, apart from the lokayukta, the Aayog would also have upto four Up-lokayuktas thus making it a multi-member body.
The new legislation would make it mandatory for the Governor to follow the recommendations of the committee headed by the Chief Minister for appointment of the lokayukta.
In the earlier 1986 Act, the power to appoint the lokayukta was with the Governor who acted on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the High Court.
The amended law brings in its purview all levels of officials from the Chief Minister down to the Sarpanchs in the villages.
These amendments, however, would not affect the appointment of Justice RA Mehta who has not yet started functioning owing to the pendency of the State Government’s curative petition in the Supreme Court.
Both the Congress and the GPP have vowed to launch agitations against the new lokayukta legislation.
GPCC president Arjun Modhwadia said that his party would agitate against the new lokayukta law in all the 18,000 villages and make them aware about the Gujarat Government’s ‘surreptious’ move to deceive the people.