Current Affairs: The Supreme Court orders the Uttar Pradesh government to appoint a new anti-corruption ombudsman or Lokayukta in next two days.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly directed the government to replace the existing Lokayukta but the orders have not been complied with.
The Supreme Court court had, in April last year, directed the government to replace the sitting Lokayukta Justice NK Mehrotra “within six months”.
The retired judge had been appointed by the government in 2006 for a period of six years and later given a two year extension by amending the law.
After the deadline given by the court passed, it began hearing an application in July seeking contempt proceedings against the state government.
At that time, the court had given the state government 30 days to appoint a new Lokayukta.
The court issued a notice to the state government on December 4 asking why should it not initiate contempt proceedings for “non-compliance.”
Earlier in August 2015, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik turned down the name of Justice (retd) Ravindra Singh — recommended by the state government — for the post of Lokayukta.
UP Assembly later on passed a Bill to amend the Lokayukta Act by dropping the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice from the selection committee.
The new committee, which will recommend the Lokayukta’s name to Raj Bhavan, will now be headed by the chief minister and have the Assembly Speaker, Leader of Opposition and a retired judge — to be nominated by the committee chairperson in consultation with the Speaker — as its members.
