Written by: Express News Service
2 min readChandigarhApr 8, 2014 04:43 PM IST
First published on: Aug 28, 2013 at 04:26 AM IST
Stating that some of the graft complaints he receives are convincing and require a thorough probe,Haryana Lokayukta,Justice (retd) Pritam Pal,however,said provisions of the Haryana Lokayukta Act left his ‘hands tied’ as they do not empower him to deal with complaints that come without affidavits.
“The government needs to give the Lokayukta powers to take suo motu cognisance of complaints pertaining to corruption so that the corrupt can be taken to task,” Justice (retd) Pritam Pal told The Indian Express on Tuesday.
“At present,we are taking cognisance of complaints that are filed on an affidavit along with judicial stamps worth Rs 1,000. The complainant needs to give his genuine identity and address so that he can be summoned during the course of inquiry. Many times,however,there are complaints which reach us and we find that the contents of the complaint are genuine and need investigation,but I can not take cognisance of such complaints,” he added.
The Haryana Lokayukta has been dealing with corruption cases allegedly involving bureaucrats,police officers and various other government functionaries. He says that the institution needs more powers to tackle the corrupt.
“I had written to the state government for making amendments in the Haryana Lokayukta Act but the government sent me a reply saying that as and when the Central government adopts some model Lokyaukta Act,the state government will also follow it,” Justice (retd) Pritam Pal said.
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