SC NOTICE TO UP ON REMOVAL OF LOKAYUKTA PIL

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking removal of the state’s lokayukta justice N K Mehrotra (retd) on various grounds, including that it had itself in April last year ordered his replacement within six months. A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and M Y Eqbal asked the UP government to submit within four weeks its reply to the PIL filed by one Mahendra Kumar Jain.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking removal of the state’s lokayukta justice N K Mehrotra (retd) on various grounds, including that it had itself in April last year ordered his replacement within six months.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and M Y Eqbal asked the UP government to submit within four weeks its reply to the PIL filed by one Mahendra Kumar Jain.

The PIL said that the apex court, on April 24 last year, had upheld the constitutional validity of an amendment to the UP Lokayukta Act for fixing eightyear tenure for the anti-corruption ombudsman.

However, the court had asked the state government to take steps to select a new incumbent within six months to replace Mehrotra as lokayukta.

Mehrotra was appointed lokayukta on March 16, 2006 for six years and later the government granted him a two-year extension by amending the Act under which the tenure was extended to eight years or till a successor took over.

While upholding the constitutional validity of the amendment to the UP Lokayukta Act, the court had directed the state government to take steps to select a new ombudsman within six months.

The fresh plea has relied upon the previous SC judgment on the issue to seek the removal of the present lokayukta.