Karnataka CM Bommai says BJP is committed to reviving Lokayukta in state as directed by HC

“There is no connection between the private individual (who approached the HC) and the government.

“We are carrying out an exercise of implementing the HC order and so there is no question of going in appeal and we have decided this soon after the order was passed by the HC. We are standing by that decision. When the matter comes up (in the SC) we will re-iterate this stand,” Bommai said Tuesday.

A BJP spokesperson in Karnataka, MG Mahesh, also said that the party will strengthen the Lokayukta in line with the high court order. “The BJP has zero tolerance for corruption. The party will fight corruption with the motto of ‘na khaunga, na khane doonga,’” the BJP spokesperson said.

In a significant legal step with a bearing on the government and administrative system in Karnataka, a division bench of the high court on August 11, ordered the abolishing of the state-controlled Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) police and revival of an anti-corruption police unit attached to the quasi-judicial Karnataka Lokayukta that works independent of the state.

A division bench comprising Justice B Veerappa and Justice KS Hemalekha issued the order in the course of its judgment in a series of petitions filed against the creation of the ACB by the then Congress government in 2016.

The Karnataka High Court in its order quashed a notification issued by the state government on March 14, 2016, creating the ACB and also subsequent notifications transferring the powers for investigation of corruption cases (under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988) from Lokayukta police to the ACB.

The BJP in its manifesto for the 2018 assembly polls had promised to revive the Karnataka Lokayukta by giving a police unit attached to the agency powers to investigate corruption as it did in the past before the creation of the state-controlled ACB by the Congress government in 2016.

The BJP, however, did not show any initiative to implement the promise made in the manifesto despite being in power in Karnataka since 2019. Since the August 11 order, there have been concerns in sections of civil society – like the former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde – that the BJP may approach the Supreme Court to contest the division bench order on Lokayukta through private parties.

Among the key recommendations of the Karnataka High Court order of August 11 is that there is “immediate necessity for amending Section 12(4) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 to the effect that once the recommendation made by Lokayukta under Section 12(3) of the KL Act, the same shall be binding on the Government.” The recommendation makes it mandatory for the state to provide sanctions for prosecution of officials, ministers (even the CM) if the Lokayukta recommends legal action.

The prosecution of corruption cases under the ACB and even the Lokayukta has stalled in the past owing to the lack of receipt of sanction of prosecution from the state government.