JOIN USThe High Court on Thursday lamented that the anti-corruption watchdog Lokayukta had not performed to its potential, registering just thousands of cases of graft though it had the powers to turn the number into lakhs.
Justice A N Venugopala Gowda, quoting the details submitted by a counsel for the Lokayukta, said that Bengaluru city had the most number of cases (182) that were pending with the watchdog, followed by Davangere (104 cases) and Kalaburagi. Raichur district had the least number of pending cases.
As many as 120 cases await Prosecution Sanction Order (PSO) from government departments, interim orders were given in 34 cases by the High Court and the Supreme Court, final reports have been prepared in 17 cases, but the courts are yet to accept them, and 38 cases await special case numbers. A total of 538 cases with the Lokayukta are under investigation.
The court remarked that corruption cases investigated by the Lokayukta were just the proverbial tip of the iceberg, as “unseen hands” are protecting the corrupt.
It ordered the Lokayukta to dispose of all cases that are one-year-old as of March 14, 2016, by the end of June and adjourned the hearing until the first week of August.