The Karnataka government has dusted out the anti-corruption bureau from the store-house of discarded laws. However, the move has raised suspicions that the idea is to deliver a few more blows to a battered Lokayukta, effectively rendering it useless to fight corruption.
On Monday, the government issued an executive order, stripping the Karnataka Lokayukta of its powers to investigate corruption cases and creating the ACB for this purpose. The ACB was junked in the 1960s.
The Karnataka Lokayukta functions under two laws. The Lokayukta deals with two things.
Now, the Karnataka government has decided to relieve the Lokayukta of its duties of investigating corruption complaints under the Prevention of Corruption Act by placing the ACB under the thumb of a cabinet minister.
Under the law, the ACB will need the government’s permission to even initiate any investigation against any public official of any rank.
So, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would have to grant sanction for prosecution, if a complaint is given against cabinet members.
What makes it even more diabolical, is that the ACB will be under the direct control of the Chief Minister, even if the body is investigating the Chief Minister. However, the Lokayukta is a quasi-judicial body, with far more powers than the ACB, and is not under the direct control of the CM.
Jurists and Opposition trash the decision.
When the ACB will function directly under a cabinet minister, how can anyone expect it to function impartially?
(The writer Sarayu Srinivasan works with The News Minute. )
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