Supreme Court of India appointed Retired Justice Virendra Singh as new Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh on December 16, 2015. It said this indicated “the inability of the constitutional authorities” and reflected “a failure, if not recusal, to comply with the orders of the highest court of the land”.
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The SC expressed its displeasure that Uttar Pradesh CM, leader of opposition and chief justice of high court had failed to comply with its order.
Sibal earlier told the court that the three-member collegium met for five hours on Tuesday and two hours on Wednesday morning.
Sources close to the development said that this time the state government was also considering over appointing a deputy Lokayukta.
The Supreme Court today invoked its constitutional powers to appoint retd High Court Judge Virendra Singh as the new Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh.
HC Chief Justice Chandrachud was of the view that as a Bill was passed in the state assembly, deciding name of Lokayukta could amount to its contempt. He suggested to take a legal opinion for the same.
Court has asked UP govt to provide 5 short-listed names for Lokayukta post.
The law provides that a high-powered committee of the chief minister, the leader of opposition and the chief justice of the concerned high court together appoints the chief of the state ombudsman. The meeting was underway by the time this report was filed and Justice Virendra Singh and Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza were said to be the top choices. The Uttar Pradesh Government had given the present Lokayukta, Justice NK Mehrotra, multiple extensions, after his term ended more than a year ago.
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The apex court had on December 4, issued notice to the state government and sought a detailed reply from it on a fresh contempt petition filed by one Sachidanand Gupta.Gupta questioned why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for non-compliance of its order to appoint a new Lokayukta in the state.
