Karnataka: Law

The selection of a Lokayukta in Karnataka is turning out to be a tricky affair. It is nearly two months now since the corruption-laden Karnataka government has had no Lokayukta. Reason? Most contenders in the reckoning for the position which fell vacant when Justice Santosh Hegde retired as Lokayukta on August 2, 2011, are under some or the other cloud.

Nearly all justices recommended by the government for Lokayukta or deputy Lokayukta are under scrutiny — at least by the media — for violating real estate and housing norms. According to investigations, Justice Bannurmath is alleged to have violated norms to build a house on a site reserved for a park at the Karnataka Judicial Employees Cooperative Society in Allalasandra-Yelahanka area of the state capital. A former chief justice of Kerala High Court, Bannurmath should have been an employee of the judicial department in order to secure the plot, according to the Karnataka Cooperative Society Act, 1959. He has been allotted a 110 ft x 60 ft site. Under similar circumstances, Justice Shivaraj Patil had to resign as Karnataka Lokayukta on September 19, 2011 when it turned out that he and his wife owned more than one site in two housing societies in clear violation of bye-laws.

In 1994, Patil was allotted 9,600 sq ft at Allalasandra on Bangalore's outskirts in the residential layout set up by the Karnataka State Judicial Department Employees House Building Cooperative Society.

His wife Annapura was allotted another plot of land measuring about 4012 sq ft at Nagawara by the Vyalikaval House Building Cooperative Society in 2006.

Under rules, the allotments violate Sec 10(a) of the model bye-law framed for house building cooperative societies which bar a member who has been allotted a site by a society from getting another one in the name of other family members. Patil had to quit. A month later, Justice R Gururajan, one of Patil's two deputies, followed suit citing health reasons. There was media speculation that Gururajan owned more than one property in Bangalore. As per the information he posted on the Karnataka Lokayukta website, he has a 42x60 piece of land in a judicial layout. He bought it in 2001 and spent Rs. 23 lakh on land and construction. In addition, he has two apartments, including the Chitrapura Society apartment in Malleswaram where he resides. Things have reached such a pass that chief minister Sadananda Gowda has declared that it is difficult to find a completely clean person for this post! Bannurmath's name as Lokayukta has been rejected.