Lokayukta bill may be tabled this Friday

KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government is likely to table the

West Bengal

Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in the assembly on Friday. In March, the Supreme Court had rapped 12 states, including Bengal, for failing to appoint a Lokayukta.


The bill seeks amendment to the West Bengal Lokayukata Act 2003 and has excluded the

chief minister

from the purview of the Act for any investigation relating to an allegation of corruption. This provision, the bill said, is in line with Section 14(1) (a) of Lokpal and

Lokayukta

Act, 2013 (1of 2014), which has similarly insulated the Prime Minister from such allegations.

Like the present Act, the amended bill also made it clear that the state government had to approve any Lokayukta probe against public servants. The bill also proposes that the minister-in-charge of parliamentary affairs will also be roped in apart from the CM, the assembly speaker and the leader of the opposition while appointing the Lokayukta.

The bill does away with the post of Upa-Lokayukta. It also proposes that a retired high court judge can be appointed as the Lokayukta. The present Act specifies that the Lokayukta has to have qualifications of a Supreme Court judge and the Upa-Lokayukta must have the qualifications of a HC judge. Amending the sub-section 1and sub-section 2 of Section 5 of the Act, the bill has also modified the term of office of the Lokayukta for a period of three years from the date he assumes office, including renewal. The Lokayukta can continue in his office till he attains the age of 70.

Bengal had only one Lokayukta till date. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay, a retired Calcutta HC judge, was appointed as the Lokayukta in 2006. He completed his term in 2009.

The bill was hurriedly tabled after an apex court bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi in March reprimanded 12 states, including Bengal, for the delay in appointing Lokayukta. Bengal had then assured the Supreme Court that the West Bengal Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill 2018 would be placed in the assembly in the monsoon session.

On July 18, the state circulated the draft bill among legislators, but withdrew it on July 19. Finally, it is going to table it on Friday.

The opposition is livid over the CM’s exclusion. The leader of the opposition, Abdul Mannan, said: “If our CM is a symbol of honesty, why did she toil to exclude her from the purview of investigation? He also questioned the manner in which the draft bill was circulated among the MLAs and then withdrawn in a huff.” A senior minister argued that the amendment is not person-specific but post-specific. Even in the central Act, the PM has been kept out of the purview of a probe.


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