Lokayukta had regretted, departments ‘do not respond’ to recommendations

By Kartik Lokhande

WHILE the State Government claims that the Lokayukta Bill-2022 passed in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday is a ‘path-breaking’ step to curb corruption, it does not make it ‘binding’ on the departments concerned to accept the recommendations made by the institution of Lokayukta. Interestingly, in May earlier this year, the Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayukta had written a confidential letter to the Governor ‘regretting’ this and had sought amendment to the existing law in this regard.

V M Kanade, Lokayukta of Maharashtra; and Sanjay Bhatia, Upa-Lokayukta, had written this letter to Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra, on May 5, 2022. The said letter has been included in the recently tabled 48th Annual Consolidated Report of the Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayukta, Maharashtra State, for the year January-December 2020. As the office of Lokayukta ‘does not receive due response from various departments of the Government’ in various cases, it ‘does not become possible to redress the grievance of the complainants’ during the course of investigation, the letter had stated clearly. In the letter, the Lokayukta and the Upa-Lokayukta had regretted that the departments to whom the recommendations were made under Sections 12(1) and 12(3) of Maharashtra Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act, 1971, ‘do not respond’ to the said recommendations with ‘realisation of duties and responsibilities’. “Resultantly, we are required to wait for a long period for the compliance of the recommendations,” they had observed in the letter.

With these observations, the Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayukta had stressed that it was ‘very much necessary’ to amend the Maharashtra Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act, 1971, ‘for making the recommendations made by us binding on, and for, the concerned authorities’. In fact, they had suggested some amendments to the Government to ensure ‘effective and complete execution of the recommendations within specific period of time’.

However, it appears that the latest Maharashtra Lokayukta Bill-2022 passed in the Legislative Assembly does not make it ‘binding’ for the departments to accept the recommendations of the Lokayukta. The Bill has a provision that asks the public servant/head or Secretary of the department concerned to submit ‘their say’ within 90 days to the Lokayukta from the date of receipt of the reference. It also states that the Lokayukta ‘may make recommendations’ for departmental enquiry or transfer or suspension of the public servant under scanner. State Government shall ‘ordinarily’ accept the recommendation of the Lokayukta, ‘except for the reasons to be recorded in writing in a case where it is not feasible for administrative reasons’, it adds.

According to sources in the know of things, all these provisions do not have anything that makes it ‘binding’ for the departments to accept the recommendations of the Lokayukta as sought in the above-mentioned letter to the Governor. As such, the departments may or may not accept the recommendations made by the institution of Lokayukta.

After passage of the Maharashtra Lokayukta Bill-2022 in Legislative Assembly, it faces the litmus test in Legislative Council. Whether the contents of the letter of the Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayukta are discussed in the Legislative Council to make the new Bill into a law that will add more teeth to the institution of Lokayukta, remains to be seen.