Congress stands firm on removing Upalokayukta

The Congress on Tuesday remained firm on its stand on the removal of Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi despite the objections raised by the opposition BJP.

“We are firm on our stand. There is no question of withdrawing the petition submitted to the Speaker by us. There is sufficient evidence of misconduct that will validate the removal of the Upalokayukta”, Government Chief Whip Ashok M Patan said.

The party on Monday submitted a petition signed by 78 legislators to Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa to move a motion for removing Justice Adi.

One of the charges made in the attachments with the petition is that Justice Adi  “overstepped”  his jurisdiction and closed a case involving a close relative of BJP leader Jagadish Shettar. The case was related to government medical officer Dr Sheela Patil in Hubballi, who is said to be a relative of Shettar.

Another attachment pertained to Justice Adi issuing notices to the Belagavi Corporation Commissioner on the construction of a building at sector 11 in Mahanteshnagar in Belagavi. Justice Adi was acting on complaints that the particular parcel of land reserved for park and civic amenities was being utilised for other purposes by the corporation.

Overstepped jurisdiction
Here too party has charged that Justice Adi overstepped his jurisdiction as then Lokayukta Shivaraj Patil had clearly demarcated the jurisdication of Upalokayukta-1 (the post held by Justice S B Majage) and Upalokayukta -2 (Justice Adi).

While Justice S B Majage was given charge of most of North Karnataka and Bengaluru Urban district, Justice Adi was given most of South Karnataka.

The BJP had opposed Congress’ move and accused the government of hatching a conspiracy to close down the institution of the Lokayukta.

 The party had commenced a dharna in the well of the Assembly on Monday. Sources said the BJP will not continue with its dharna when the House resumes on Wednesday and will take up law and order issue in the State. It was up to the Speaker to accept or reject Congress’ petition, a senior leader said.

The JD (S) has not sup-ported the Congress’ move to get Justice Adi removed. At the same time, the party has not extended support to the BJP on this issue.

Joint meeting
In another development, Speaker Thimmappa and Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy held a joint meeting on working out the modalities on writing to the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court for conducting an investigation on the charges against Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao.

The petitions filed by the BJP and JD(S) seeking to move a motion to remove Justice Rao had been accepted by the presiding officers of two Houses.