THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed the Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2022, a diluted version of the two decade-old anti-graft law. The Opposition UDF called it a black day, tore of copies of the bill before boycotting the voting. Now, the ball is in Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s court. Considering the rift between the governor and the state government, there is speculation that the former may refuse to accord or refer the bill to the President.
The house witnessed heated exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches over the legislation. Ramesh Chennithala and P C Vishnunath questioned the subject committee bringing in amendments to the bill. However, the speaker issued a ruling rejecting the same.
During discussion, the Opposition reiterated its criticism that with the new legislation, the government will make the executive the appellate authority over judiciary. The government, however, refuted the same saying Lok Ayukta has no judicial powers.
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan made a scathing attack on the ruling front for making the legislature an appellate authority of Lok Ayukta’s verdict. “The new bill says the assembly will take a decision on the Lok Ayukta’s verdict against the chief minister. Leaving Lok Ayukta report to a majority decision is unheard of. The CM is from the majority party in the house. How would the report be accepted? Similarly, will the CM approve the adverse findings against his cabinet colleagues?” he asked.
Satheesan also questioned Law Minister K Rajeeve’s comparison with the Lokpal Bill.
“The claim that the amendment has made the legislation at par with Lokpal is a lie. The Lokpal Act has not fixed parliament as the appellate authority on Lokpal’s decisions. It says the Lokpal can file a case in a special court. But Kerala’s amendment bill has deemed the assembly as an appellate authority, thus degrading the Lok Ayukta to the status of an advisory committee,” he said.
“It is an injustice to assign the executive to accept or reject the Lok Ayukta verdict which evolved through a judicial process,” he said. Law Minister Rajeeve cited High Court verdicts and some cabinet decisions by the UDF government in his defence for the amendment bill. He pointed out that the Lok Ayukta was not a judicial body but an investigation agency. The Lok Ayukta laws enacted in Maharashtra and Gujarat during the tenure of Congress governments have not included the chief minister under the purview of the Lok Ayukta. The A K Antony government decided against giving adjudicatory powers to the Lok Ayukta, he said.
Rejecting the Opposition’s arguments, Rajeeve said Lok Ayukta has no judicial powers, and it is an investigative system in place. Referring to the controversial section in the legislation, the minister said the section is not in line with the Constitution. “It was a wrong clause which had been followed for 23 years. Now, the government is simply rectifying the same,” he said.