Ex-Guwahati HC Chief Justice Ajit Singh Appointed Odisha’s First Lokayukta Chief

Bhubaneswar: Former Chief Justice of Guwahati High Court Ajit Singh was appointed as the first chairman of Lokayukta of Odisha, which shall include other members, on Saturday.

Governor Ganeshi Lal approved Singh’s name, which the seven-member search committee had unanimously finalised in a meeting presided over by its chairperson and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on February 12, official sources said.

The office of the anti-corruption watchdog will start functioning from April 8.

It may be recalled that Odisha was the first state in the country to pass the Lokayukta Bill in the State Assembly on February 14, 2014. However, the state government had not taken any step to make it functional. Taking strong exception to the non-implementation of its order, the Supreme Court (SC) on July 10 last year had directed the state government to complete the process for appointment of the Lokayukta by October 10.

Four days before the expiry of the SC deadline, the Odisha government on October 7 had picked the fifth member of the Lokayukta Appointment Committee.

On October 24, 2018, the apex court had outrightly rejected the application of the Odisha government to allow it three months’ time for the appointment of the Lokpal.

The apex court, while rejecting the appeal forthwith, directed the chief secretary of the state to specify the date for the appointment of the Lokpal.

On December 10, 2018., the state government had constituted a seven-member search committee, which under the chairmanship of justice Amitava Roy had suggested five names for the post of the Lokayukta chairperson and three names each for the five members in its report to the Chief Minister-led panel on January 9.

The committee had former Odisha DGP Gopal Nanda, ex-IAS officer Sanjiv Hota, former IAS officer Dr RN Bohidar, Dr Bidhu Bhusan Samal, Prof Snigdha Patnaik of XIMB and Vice Chancellor of National Law University, Bangalore, Dr Venkata Rao Rambhatla as its members.