Lokayukta, MHA in war over mantri

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A shopowner shifts belongings during a sealing drive, prompting traders to announce a shutdown on Thursday. — ASIAN AGE

The Union home ministry and Delhi Lokayukta are virtually on the warpath with the Lokayukta insisting to know the ministry’s “thought process and analysis’’ as well as the reasons leading to President Pratibha Patil rejecting the recommendation for removal of PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan for his alleged involvement in a tax-evasion case.
Taking exception to the replies furnished by the MHA, the Lokayukta’s office has in its letter to the MHA dated October 18, contended such information should be provided to the Lokayukta to enable him perform his statutory obligations under the Delhi Lokayukta and Upalokayukta Act, 1995 to either close the case or make a “special report’’ upon the case. The Lokayukta office maintained that in the absence of such details, the Lokayukta will be “left with no option but to proceed on the basis that the above record and information (sought from the MHA) is “non existent’’.
Sources in MHA made it clear that whatever information was sought by the Lokayukta has been provided, not once but twice, but the insistence of the Lokayukta wanting to know the “thought process’’ behind the rejection of its recommendation is “questionable’’.
After receiving the MHA’s replies, the Delhi Lokayukta had shot off a letter to the home ministry on September 21 saying, “The distinction between analysis or reasons which reflect thought process of the authority and the conclusion based on such analysis or reasons is well established. To say that the analysis of the report has been conveyed in the letter dated June 24 is not borne out from the record. It does not reflect any analysis or the reasons based on which the recommendations were made by the MHA to the President or the reasons recorded by the President for not accepting the findings and recommendations of the Lokayukta.”
The Lokayukta has sought copies of the notings or record containing analysis of MHA, recommendations made to the competent authority on file or through letter, notes or other communications and the final orders including reasons, recorded by the competent authority to enable him to take a decision so that his “statutory functioning is not hampered’’.
However, the MHA has said that on June 24, 2011, it conveyed to the Lokayukta the reasons for non-acceptance of the report, which was again sent on July 4 along with the additional documents including the comments of Chauhan, views of Delhi government and reasons for non-acceptance of the recommendations of the Lokayukta.