HC seeks update on Lokayukta appointment process

Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court on Friday directed the state govt to submit a progress report on the appointment of a Lokayukta, a post lying vacant since 2013. State govt’s advocate general SN Babulkar sought more time, informing the court that proceedings in the appointment process were underway but progressing slowly.A division bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay gave the govt 30 minutes to explain why the court’s order was not being complied with. In the subsequent hearing, the govt submitted that the first meeting of the search committee is scheduled for the first week of June. The bench directed the govt to submit details of the committee’s decisions and fixed the next hearing for June 16.On the previous date, the court had ordered the govt to file an affidavit, detailing the outcome of the meeting scheduled for April 3. However, the meeting could not be held due to lack of quorum, following which, the court had fixed the next hearing date four weeks later.At an earlier hearing, the state govt sought six months to complete the appointment process, but the court granted only three months. Even after a year, the post remains vacant and not a single meeting of the search committee has been held since a PIL was filed in 2021.The PIL, filed by Haldwani resident Ravi Shankar Joshi, stated that while Rs 2-3 crore is spent annually on the institution, no Lokayukta has been appointed. The petitioner submitted that in states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, Lokayuktas have taken strict action against corruption, but in Uttarakhand, scams continue to surface and citizens are forced to approach the HC for every small matter.The petition further argued that all investigation agencies in the state remain under the govt, with no independent agency authorised to register corruption cases against gazetted officers without prior approval. The PIL emphasised the need for a transparent and impartial system and called for immediate appointment of the Lokayukta to check corruption and reduce the workload on courts.