BHUBANESWAR: After a long delay of more than two years, the state government has finally started the process for appointment of the Odisha Lokayukta chairperson.
The first meeting of the selection committee comprising Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Speaker of the Assembly Surama Padhy and leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik was held on Monday evening, though no names for the post have been disclosed.
Sources said, the committee discussed several names for the head of the anti-corruption watchdog. A retired judge of the Orissa High Court is also said to have attended the meeting. The committee will meet again to discuss and come to a decision in the later phase. Apart from the chairperson, other members will also have to be finalised, the sources informed.
The Lokayukta has been in a defunct state following retirement of chairman Justice Ajit Singh in March, 2024. Subsequently, two other members of the body Justice Bijaya Kumar Nayak (judicial member) and Debabrata Swain (non-judicial member) retired in April that year.
The last non-judicial member, ex-IPS officer Rajendra Prasad Sharma, retired in August 2024. The Orissa High Court has also taken serious note of the delay in filling up the posts and repeatedly directed the government to take steps to make the panel functional.
Hearing three separate PILs, the High Court had granted the state government time till January 13 this year to file a report on the status of appointment of the chairperson and three members of the Lokayukta.
Again in the same month, the court had granted the government a six-week deadline for the appointments after advocate general Pitambar Acharya submitted that more time was required to complete the appointment process as there was a need to amend the Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014. “The amendment is required to do away with certain discrepancies and anomalies related to the selection committee for the appointments,” he had said.
However, the Amendment Bill concerning the selection committee structure has not yet been introduced in the Assembly. Sources pointed out that the amendments are likely to be placed in the ensuing monsoon session, to be held in August last week. The law will be amended to ensure that the selection process does not get stalled if political or administrative deadlocks occurred or if any single member of the panel became unavailable, uncooperative, or if a post (like the leader of Opposition or Speaker) was temporarily disputed.
Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari said the first meeting regarding the appointment has been held. He expressed confidence that the process would be completed soon.
