Governor says NO to Justice V Shetty’s name for Lokayukta Post

Governor says NO to Justice V Shetty’s name for Lokayukta Post

Magaluru: In a major embarrassment to the Siddaramaiah government, Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala has returned the file recommending the name of retired Karnataka High Court judge P Vishwanath Shetty for the post of Lokayukta. The governor has asked the government to select a person with an impeccable track record. The governor, according to sources in the Chief Minister’s office, has expressed his displeasure at the way the high-level committee headed by Siddaramaiah selected Justice Shetty’s name without proper scrutiny of his personal record and antecedents.

According to sources in the state secretariat, Vala has also written to the government pointing out that there were procedural lapses while recommending the name of Justice Shetty to Raj Bhavan for approval. It is said the governor has written a two-page letter to explain why he is directing the government to look afresh into its decision. Vala is understood to have brought to the notice of the government that founder-president of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya- S R Hiremath had submitted a memorandum to Raj Bhavan along with documents charging that Justice Shetty and his family were involved in the purchase of three sites and seven acres of agriculture land in violation of rules.

The Governor is also said to have questioned as to why the government did not check properly the background of its nominee and went ahead with clearing the name in just a day. At a high-level meeting to select the new Lokayukta on January 9, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar had mentioned about the charges against Justice Shetty regarding land purchase. But Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dismissed it as trivial. Hiremath has also alleged that Shetty had appeared for mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy before the Supreme Court. Reddy was indicted by the Karnataka Lokayuta in the illegal mining case.

Apart from Siddaramaiah, who is the chairman of the high-level committee to select the Lokayukta, the meeting was presided over by Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court S K Mukherjee. Earlier too, the governor had refused to give his assent for the state government’s recommendation of Justice S R Nayak for the Lokayukta’s post. The anti-corruption agency has remained headless since the ignominious exit of former Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao in December 2015.