BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to file an affidavit disclosing details of the number of files forwarded by the Lokayukta with report and steps taken.
Hearing a batch of public interest litigation questioning the constitution of the ACB in the state, the court directed that an affidavit be filed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of ACB.
The ACB has also been directed to reveal whether any such reports forwarded by the Lokayukta have been closed without registration of FIR, and if so, the details of those cases be provided with names of persons relating to the case.
Issuing these directions, a division bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Suraj Govindaraj also directed the ACB to disclose the number of complaints received subsequent to its constitution on March 14, 2016, with all relevant details.
The bench issued the directions after the counsel, representing the accused in the cases registered by the ACB, submitted before the court that there were many complaints that ACB closed without registering FIRs.
The accused have challenged the very constitution of the ACB itself. Their counsel have argued that the state had not disclosed in its affidavit filed before the SC that it had constituted the ACB in relation to the public interest litigation in the case of Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v/s Union government and others.
Taking note of it, the bench directed the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), Karnataka, to file an affidavit enclosing the copy of the said affidavit and pleadings filed before the SC.
Powers for Lokayukta police wing urged
Senior advocate Ashok Haranahalli, representing the Lokayukta institution, pleaded with the court to confer powers to register FIRs. He argued that the Lokayukta police wing was under the administrative control of the institution and hence the independence of the wing was protected. However, the power provided to the Lokayukta police to register FIRs was withdrawn by the state government for the constitution of the ACB, he said.
Haranahalli argued that the state government has created a fight between the Lokayukta and the ACB by withdrawing the powers of the Lokayukta police. The action of withdrawing powers is unsustainable before law. Unless the State has a different Act, an investigating agency (ACB) similar to the Lokayukta institution cannot exist, he said.