Supreme Court reserves verdict on Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta selection

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on petitions seeking recall of an earlier order by which Justice Virendra Singh, former judge of Allahabad High Court, was appointed the Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh. 

The apex court also made clear that it would not send the appointment issue back to the empowered collegium consisting the Chief Minister, the Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of the High Court as it had failed to comply with its orders on the appointment of Lokayukta for nearly 20 months. 

“Unless there are compelling reasons shocking our conscience, we will not vacate our order,” the bench, comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Prafulla C Pant, said, asking senior advocate TR Andhyarujina to substantiate the allegations that had made the Chief Justice of the High Court to oppose Justice Singh’s name for the post.

The apex court had on December 16 last year exercised its constitutional authority and appointed Justice Singh as Lokayukta, saying the constitutional functionaries had failed to comply with its orders by not appointing the chief of the state’s anti-graft ombudsman. During the winter vacation, the Supreme Court had heard a fresh plea filed by one Sachidanand Gupta who had alleged that the SP government had “concealed facts” about Justice Singh and “played fraud” upon the apex court. 

The state government had also told the court that it will not go ahead with the oath taking ceremony of Justice Singh as Lokayukta till the apex court had heard the plea. 

The court had taken note of the fresh plea which alleged that immediately after the appointment, the High Court Chief Justice had written a letter to Governor Ram Naik expressing his displeasure with the state government for not disclosing the facts that he had some reservations on Singh’s name.