With the State government not being clear on its stand on the probe into the corruption scandal in Lokayukta office, the matter is all set to reach Governor Vajubhai R. Vala.
A section of legal experts have now pointed out that only the Governor can order a probe into Lokayukta affairs and not the State government.
Upalokayukta Subhash B. Adi told The Hindu that if need be, he will write to the Governor seeking a CBI probe.
He said that Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao had to write to the Governor seeking a probe, and not the Chief Minister. “Lokayukta is an ombudsman to the government. We do not report to the State government, but to the Governor,” he said.
Social activist S.R. Hiremath, presently in Varanasi, said he will meet Mr. Vala once he returns and will lodge a complaint with him seeking a CBI probe.
The former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde, however, differed and said that the Chief Minister should order a CBI probe and this did not amount to interference into the Lokayukta affairs as Mr. Rao himself has written a letter and sought a probe.
No procedure
The confusion over the legalities of conducting an investigation emanates from the fact that the law does not lay down any procedure to probe the office of Lokayukta, in the eventuality of allegations of corruption. Mr. Hegde said while the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 provides for impeachment of the Lokayukta, there is no provision that deals with probing the Lokayukta office. “May be, those who wrote the law did not foresee a situation where the Lokayukta office itself will come under suspicion for corruption,” he said.
