Lokayukta not to be empowered

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North Block and South Block are lit up at the end of the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on Sunday evening.

The Delhi Lokayukta’s demand for more teeth to deal with graft cases “effectively” and bringing civil servants under its jurisdiction have been stonewalled with the city government rejecting them straightway.
Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin, who had in the recent past passed a number of adverse orders against the Delhi government, had demanded the power of search and seizure and statutory powers for initiating contempt proceedings, but they too were turned down.
Justice Sarin had sought powers of search and seizure to probe graft cases and had pointed out that such powers have been vested in the lokayuktas of states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
“Because of such powers, the lokayuktas in such states have been more effective in their functioning,” he had said in a report to the government.
However, rejecting the demand for more powers, the government said that as per provisions of the Delhi Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta Act, the ombudsman takes the services of officers from government investigating agency or any other agency to conduct a probe.
The lokayukta currently hires private investigators or other agencies to carry out probe as it does not have an investigating wing. Justice Sarin also sought bringing civil servants under the ambit of the lokayukta saying corrupt or wrongful act of elected representatives normally involves “complicity” of the bureaucrats.
“In case of misuse of power or corruption, the respective role of the public functionaries vis-a-vis bureaucrats is so intermingled and enmeshed that it would be difficult to decide where the role of one functionary ends and that of the other begins,” he said.