Justice Subhash is Upalokayukta

The State government has appointed Justice Subhash B Adi the second Upalokayukta, after Governor H R Bhardwaj cleared the appointment on Friday.

Justice Adi was sworn in on Saturday evening in a hastily organised ceremony. The swearing-in was attended by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar, acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and other judges of the high court.

Present Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao did not attend, since he is reportedly travelling in Andhra Pradesh to deliver a series of lectures. Till Friday evening, Justice Adi was a sitting judge of the Karnataka High Court.

The appointment process began on Wednesday after the State government forwarded the file to Raj Bhavan for approval. Sources said the governor had refused to clear Justice Adi’s name, stating that appointment of a sitting judge to the post of Lokayukta required approval of the President of India. The file was returned to the government on Thursday.

The process resumed on Friday after Adi suddenly resigned as a high court judge. He was due to retire in August, 2013. Lokayukta officials said they were informed about Adi’s appointment on Friday night and the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday morning. Both Adi and the chief minister refused to take questions from the media.