Motion for Adi’s removal sent to Chief Justice

Uncertainty over the pending motion for removal of Upalokayukta Subhash B. Adi has ended with Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa finally referring the case for inquiry by the Chief Justice.

Mr. Adi will, however, continue to discharge his duties as the Upalokayukta pending direction from the High Court, sources said.

Mr. Thimmappa had hitherto kept the motion on removal of Mr. Adi, moved in the House, pending for want of evidence. Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Mr. Thimmappa said that he was now convinced with the evidence and documents made available to him and had sent the same to the Chief Justice for probe on Friday.

There had been a lot of confusion on where the process stood after over 75 Congress members moved a proposal to remove Mr. Adi. There was claim and counter-claim on whether the motion had been admitted by the Speaker or not, with two versions of the Assembly proceedings surfacing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Adi has filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking clarity on when he should be precluded from discharging his duties. While the government had earlier interpreted that the Upalokayukta be precluded from office after the admission of motion for his removal in the Assembly, Mr. Adi in his petition has contended that it can only be after the completion of inquiry against him in a maximum of 90 days.

The writ petition is still pending before the High Court. Sources close to Mr. Adi said he will continue to discharge his duties in line with his submission before the court. “He will follow the directions of the court now,” said the source.

Earlier this month, the High Court directed the Assembly Secretary to submit “web server certificate” to find out whether draft debates of the Assembly related to the motion posted on the website were tampered with or not.