Even as the pressure building on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah within and outside over the creation of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), widely perceived as weakening the lokayukta, the Karnataka High Court has slammed the Government over ACB.
The single bench judge justice AN Venugopala Gowda criticised the move of the Karnataka Government to create ACB and without naming the Chief Minister asked “ Is this the man who walked down from Bengaluru to Ballari to fight corruptionIJ. Justice Gowda slammed the hasty move to create ACB and said it has paralysed the lokayukta system and created a vacuum with neither the lokayukta police nor the ACB receiving complaints against corruption for the past 15 days.
“Why did you ask the lokayukta police not to register complaintsIJ Have you not created a vacuumIJ We’ve seen people leaving the country itself if a day is delayed in registering a complaint,” he said.
Justice Gowda said, “It does not appear that consultation at different levels was taken before the decision to create the ACB. Your manifesto is to strengthen the lokayukta, but brazen action could be seen taking place in last 15 days.”
Referring to the 201 posts lying vacant in the lokayukta police wing as against 733 sanctioned posts, Justice Gowda asked, “How will you have one more anti-corruption body when you are not filling the vacancyIJ You did not make the lokayukta police wing fully functional. What purpose can be achieved by having A, B, C, DIJ”
Justice Gowda referred many verdicts of Supreme Court pertaining to corruption, said no day goes in the country without corruption. “So, was it not the topmost priority of the Government to make lokayukta police wing functionalIJ It becomes difficult to survive where corruption is neglected,” he said.
Justice Gowda is monitoring the lokayukta cases in relation to the petition filed by Dr Nandish from Mandya, who challenged a case registered by the lokayukta police. Before adjourning the matter to March 31, Justice Gowda asked the Additional Advocate General (AAG) A S Ponnanna to provide details of ACB’s progress.
The senior leaders of the Congress like former Chief Minister SM Krishna, Janardhan Poojary and BK Hariprasad and others have strongly opposed the creation of ACB which they felt would weaken the lokayukta. Opposition parties - both BJP and JDs have been opposing the Government move. However Chief Minister Siddaramaiah strongly defended the creation of ACB on the floor of the house and said it would strengthen the present lokayukta. It was on March 14 the ruling Congress Government created ACB which wrested away many powers of lokayukta. Former lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde and other eminent citizens have criticised the move.