TN notifies Lokayukta Rules in government gazette

The State government has notified the recently passed Tamil Nadu Lokayukta Rules, 2018, in the Government Gazette, which has given official status to the rules.

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 44 of the Tamil Nadu Lokayukta Act, 2018, the Tamil Nadu Lokayukta Rules of 2018, were passed in the State assembly and after four months of passing the rules, the government passed a GO recently and then notified in the gazette.

According to the Lokayukta Rules, there are 26 different posts, apart from the Chairman and four members of Lokayukta, who are appointed by a three-member search committee, which will in turn recommend the names of Chairman and four members to the government.

The rules state that the committee will be constituted by a selection committee headed by the Chief Minister as the Chairman and comprise the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition as two other members. Any dispute in the selection committee regarding the appointment of the search committee will be resolved by a numerical majority.

The Chairman of Lokayukta will be a judge of a High Court or a person with 25 years of experience in anti-corruption policies, public administration, vigilance, finance and law. Out of the four members of Lokayukta, two will be judicial members.

Though the Lokayukta is entrusted with powers to investigate people for graft charges, the only shortcoming in the rules is that the Lokayukta cannot investigate the charges of corruption against any member of the Assembly, according to privileges guaranteed by the Constitution.

However, the Lokayukta rules have certain rights guaranteed for the complainant. When the complainant dies after making the complaint or does not take further steps to substantiate the allegations, Lokayukta Chairperson or members can proceed further with the complaint based on the materials available.

The rules also provide security to the complainant as the complaint cannot be withdrawn unless the Lokayukta is satisfied that the complaint was factually incorrect.

An official attached to the department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, on request of anonymity, said that the anti-graft ombudsman is likely to be appointed in February 2019.

The Tamil Nadu government removed the link of the gazette notification of the recently passed Lokayukta rules within a single day from the government website. Sources said that it could have been done to avoid possible criticism. The gazette was uploaded on Tamil Nadu government website, www.tn.gov.in on Wednesday night. Opposition parties had earlier criticised that the State government had diluted the provisions of Lokayukta rules.