Justice Reddy to be Goa's first Lokayukta
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 23 January 2013 22:32 IST
Goa government has recommended Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd) B Sudarshan Reddy as the first Lokayukta of Goa.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar has said the recommendation has been sent to the chief justice of the Bombay high court.
Parrikar had assured during Assembly election that Lokayukta would be appointed within 100 days after taking over.
He took over as the chief minister on 9 March and had to appoint Lokayukta by 16 June.
But the announcement of recommendation itself has come today, after 321 days. The appointment is yet to be made.
To justify the delay, Parrikar cited many reasons including panchayat elections, mining ban as well as not finding a suitable judge who is not ‘yes man’.
On the other hand, the state government has also decided to amend the Lokayukta act.
One of the major amendment, said Parrikar at the cabinet briefing today, that a complainant would be fined from Rs one lakh to 10 lakh and imprisoned for one year if a false or frivolous complaint is filed before Lokayukta.
Other amendments include expanding the term of Lokayukta from three to five years, increasing the age bar from 70 to 73 years and appointing either high court chief justice or a supreme court judge as the Lokayukta.
67-year old Justice Reddy retired as a Supreme Court judge on 8 July 2011.
Before taking over as the judge of the apex court on 12 January 2007, Justice Reddy was the chief justice of the Gauhati high court since 5 December 2005.
He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court since 2 May 1995.
He was enrolled as Advocate at Hyderabad with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh on 27 December 1971.
He has practiced in Writ and Civil matters in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
He worked as Government Pleader in the High Court during 1988-90.
He also worked as Additional Standing Counsel for Central Government for a period of 6 months during 1990.
He worked as Legal Adviser and Standing Counsel for Osmania University.
Oh poor Aires, he was hoping he would get the post.