NEW DELHI: Retired Jharkhand High Court judge Harish Chandra Mishra was on Wednesday sworn in as the Lokayukta of Delhi.
The oath of office was administered by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal at a solemn ceremony held at the Raj Niwas here.
The post of Lokayukta in Delhi has been lying vacant since the retirement of Rewa Khetrapal in December 2020.
According to the notification dated March 15, Baijal appointed justice (retired) Mishra as the Lokayukta. Mishra will hold office for a term of five years from the date of his joining. Mishra was also the Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court.
Last month, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had told the Delhi High Court that the process of appointing a Lokayukta was going on.
The submission was made in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the AAP government to appoint within one month a Lokayukta as promised by the party in its election manifesto in 2020.
In the PIL, it was alleged that hundreds of complaints relating to corruption were lying unheard in the office of the Lokayukta as the post had been vacant for more than a year.
The opposition parties had also been targeting the AAP government for not appointing the Lokayukta, thereby troubling the common people.
Khetrapal was appointed Lokayukta in November 2015 by then Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. Before Khetrapal, Justice (retired) Manmohan Sarin was the Lokayukta, who retired from the post in 2013.