Lokayukta to lose its teeth, Governor to lose his power; new bill approved by subject committee will be passed by Assembly next week

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Lokayukta's verdict in corruption cases of public functionaries is no longer final. An appellate authority will come before the person who is found guilty by the Lokayukta. The controversial Lokayukta amendment bill, which empowers the chief minister, governor and state government to hear and reject Lokayukta rulings, was yesterday referred to the subject committee after a debate that witnessed arguments and objections from the opposition. The subject committee meeting held in the evening approved the amendments as per the agreement between CPM and CPI. State-level political organizations were also exempted from the jurisdiction of the Lokayukta. The new bill with these amendments will be passed by the Assembly next week.

Opposition leader VD Satheesan criticised that the new bill would curtail the judicial powers of the Lokayukta, which was introduced with the aim of preventing the corruption of public servants. According to Satheesan, the amendment is against the Supreme Court verdicts. It is in violation of article 14 of the Constitution. The condition on the amendment is an encroachment on the judiciary, criticized Satheesan. How can the executive reject a judicial decision? The law minister does not have the right to say that the law is unconstitutional, slammed the opposition leader.

However, Law Minister P Rajeev, who introduced the bill, replied that the Lokayukta is only a mechanism for checking and conducting investigations and that it is unconstitutional to give it judicial powers.

Verdict against Chief Minister: To be decided by Assembly

• With the passage of the new amendment bill, if the Lokayukta passes a judgment against the CM, the Legislative Assembly will be the authority to consider the appeal against the judgment and not the governor.
• The Chief Minister can decide on judgments against ministers and the Speaker can decide on judgments against MLAs. The current law requires public officials to resign from the position they hold if they are found guilty of corruption. The order of the Lokayukta can now be accepted or rejected by the appellate authority.
• As per Section 3 of the Kerala Lokayukta Act, 1999, the person appointed as Lokayukta should be a retired Supreme Court Judge or a retired Chief Justice of the High Court. As per the new amendment, a retired High Court judge can be considered for this post.
• The age limit of Lokayukta and Upalokayukta has been fixed as 70 years. Currently, there is no age limit.