Designated Gujarat lokayukta and retired Justice RA Mehta declined to take charge as lokayukta even after the Supreme Court cleared his appointment. In a seven-page letter to Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Bhasker Bhattacharya and Gujarat Governor Kamala Beniwal he showed unwillingness to serve as lokayukta. There has been no lokayukta in Gujarat since over a decade.
Ever since, Mehta’s appointment as ombudsman was announced around a couple of years back, it became political issue. The decision to appoint him turned out to be a legal battle as the Narendra Modi-ruled BJP Government protested it on the ground that the Cabinet was not consulted before zeroing in on Mehta. The State Government also alleged that the judge was prejudiced against the Government.
The State Government challenged the decision first time in the Gujarat High Court where it lost. Subsequently, it was challenged in the Supreme Court which in January upheld the High Court’s order in favour of Justice Mehta’s appointment. The Government then filed a curative petition but this too was rejected by the apex court. Now, retired justice’s letter has given air to a fresh controversy as the Congress and the BJP have started locking horn against each other. Mehta stated that it was difficult to get necessary support for an unwanted lokayukta from a reluctant Government.
“Two years ago when I was invited for the purpose, I was not interested being averse to any controversy. After great persuasion I was given to understand the choice would be unanimous and without any objection from any quarter including the state government,” he quoted in the letter.Soon it became clear that the public functionaries had strong objections against my appointment as the Gujarat lokayukta, he maintained adding, “It was said that I had ‘anti-government bias’.
From that moment I have been brooding: To be or not to be the lokayukta. The answer has not been easy. Highly respected elders and friends have with great force and persuasion suggested that I must accept. My thinking is to the contrary.”He claimed that the state government said to have spent Rs. 45 crore in litigation to challenge his appointment, which it is disproportionate.
“How can I take responsibility and become the lokayukta when my objectivity and credibility are not accepted by the government and public functionaries whose conduct the lokayukta may have to investigateIJ” he said in a letter.
“I may be called hyper-sensitive, touchy, timid, shirking and what not. Some may even allege that I have been won over, purchased, threatened and what not! I have very great respect for their views. I have been seriously considering all along, but I could not persuade myself to accept the office of lokayukta,” he said. Despite three Supreme Court orders, the government’s reluctance to notify the appointment of the lokayukta was “surprising, but not unexpected, he continued.
The State Government’s letter to him said he had been appointed by the Governor and his swearing-in had to be organized in the Raj Bhawan or Governor’s home. “As if the government has no interest or role in the matter! the appointment has lost all the grace and dignity. The objection alleging anti-govt bias (though negatived by the courts), really hurts,” he remarked.