The office of the Lokayukta has forwarded the name of L Umakanthan to the government for his appointment as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the High Court.
Umakanthan is being touted as the replacement for Rajendra Reddy, one of the Lokayukta SPPs for High Court, whose tenure ended this week. The Lokayukta police who expected the tenure of Rajendra Reddy to be extended because of his good work, were in for a shock to see Umakanthan’s name being forwarded for approval.
The appointments of the SPPs are made at present by the Upa Lokayukta S B Majage and currently, there are six SPPs.
What makes the appointment interesting is that Umakanthan was earlier appointed the SPP of the Special Lokayukta Court and he resigned a month later, after finding himself unable to handle the workload and drawing the ire of the Court because of his inability to assist the Court in any of the cases.
The lacklustre performance of the advocate had also upset the Lokayukta police, who were unhappy about the way their cases were being handled.
When asked about the appointment of Umakanthan earlier to the Special Lokayukta Court, the officials had admitted that appointing the 70-year-old advocate to handle the heavy workload was a mistake.
However, it is learnt that Majage, who had originally suggested Umakanthan’s name to the Special Lokayukta Court, has managed to bring him back on board as the SPP to the High Court and sent in the recommendation to the government for approval.
Lokayukta Registrar B Yoginath defended the decision stating that Umakanthan was being brought in because of his experience.
“It is true that he did not have any experience in trial court, but there is a lot of difference between how cases are handled in the High Court and trial court. The foundation for cases will be laid in the trial court for the cases being tried in the High Court, so he can manage,” he said.
Yoginath also did not rule out extending the tenure of Rajendra Reddy stating that they were considering that possibility too.
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