Appointment of retired personnel in the office of Lokayukta not as per law: TUR

The Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) on Monday demanded that the Lokayukta should be multi member drawing persons from judiciary, civil society and others.

“We demand that the Lokayukta should be multi member drawing persons from judiciary , civil society and others and that a robust and independent Directorate of Investigation and directorate Prosecution be set up as per law and all illegal appointments done till date  be terminated,” TUR leader Angela Rangad said in a statement.

She said that the appointment of retired personnel for the directorate of investigation and directorate of prosecution in the office of the Lokayukta has not been as per law. 

First and foremost the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act 2014 clearly states in sec 10 (2)  that a Directorate of Investigation and Directorate of Prosecution are  two separate entities that are to be set up within the Lokayukta.

Rangad said the Lokayukta is to appoint the Directors from a panel of names of serving Govt officials forwarded by the Govt.

“The law also states that till such time when the Directorates are set up and staffed, Intermediate arrangements can be made. But How is it that there were 3 yr and 5 yr contracts made when there are no rules to this effect and how did the Lokayukta make these appointments. Were these political appointments?” she asked.

“Independence of the Lokayukta will be ensured by the Lokayukta acting transparently and independently and asserting his / her power as mandated by the law. These clauses were fought for over years and yet the Lokayukta was weakened by reducing it to a single member institution and also not looking beyond retired bureaucrats and officers,” she added.  

According to her, a Single member commission is a dangerous idea as there are no checks and balances.

Stating that a similar weakening has happened with the State information Commission, Rangad said further these first appointments to the Directorate of investigation and directorate of prosecution are blatantly illegal.

“A single person, in this instant case a retired police officer Mr. Rymmai, cannot be holding both the post of Director of Investigation and Director of Prosecution. Such a legal blunder will be a cause of procedural lapses that will go against any ensuing case that the Lokayukta is presenting to the courts,” she said adding “Unfortunately the Government is continuing with the legal blunder by appointing only one person as a Director of investigation and Prosecution yet again.”

“ Voices should be raised to safeguard the independence of institutions such as the Lokayukta but this cannot be done by wilful misreading of the law and intellectual dishonesty that merely riles up emotions without putting out the real truth in the public domain. The public needs to call the bluff of the protestors for defending  blunders and also call out the government for replacing one illegality by another,” she said.