Graft cases: HC lens on Lokayukta orders

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has held that orders of the Lokayukta in corruption cases are not permissible if they are issued based on inquiry reports submitted without comments of the competent authority.The ruling came while considering the case of two engineers against whom complaints of misappropriation of MGNREGS funds were received. Acting on it, the Lokayukta got the complaints probed by the state vigilance and on the basis of the inquiry reports ordered the director of prosecution to file a chargesheet against them.Both the public servants had filed petitions challenging the Lokayukta’s orders. Advocate Sukanta Kumar Dalai argued on behalf of the petitioners. On perusal of the records, the HC found that the inquiry reports were submitted without the comments of the competent authority (principal secretary of panchayati raj and drinking water department).“The inquiry report submitted without the comments of the competent authority cannot be said to be in accordance with the spirit of the statutory provisions,” the single-judge bench of Justice S K Panigrahi observed in the judgment released on Thursday.

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