The Assembly cleared the decks for the appointment of a Lokayukta by passing the A.P. Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2019, on Friday.
The amendment to the A.P. Lokayukta Act, 1983, is for appointing a retired Chief Justice or a retired judge of the High Court as Lokayukta. It was mentioned in the ‘statement of objects and reasons’ that as per sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the A.P. Lokayukta Act of 1983, ‘the person to be appointed as the Lokayukta shall be a judge or a retired CJ of the HC’.
The government observed that an acting judge or a retired CJ of HC may not be available for appointment as the Lokayukta.
It, therefore, proposed the aforesaid amendment for overcoming the constraint of non-availability of a judge or a retired CJ for appointment.
Speaking on the Bill, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said his predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu should have appointed a Lokayukta, but he kept the high post vacant for five years because his commitment to eradicating corruption was superficial.
By making a small change in the Act to the effect that a retired judge of the HC could also be appointed to the post, he (Mr. Naidu) would have made the anti-corruption ombudsman functional.
