A few days ago, B. M. Ramachandra, the Devaraja Traffic Inspector, Mysore, was caught by Lokayukta sleuths while accepting bribe. The young men who laid the trap to nab him might have set an example in not tolerating corruption but the question is, will it actually have any effect? In the video of the raid, a copy of which was sent to our office, Ramachandra has an absolute look of arrogance when his hands are held up by the Lokayukta officer. Not just that, he also kept a menacing stare pointedly on the young legal counsel who had set up the trap as if to say “I will come back for you”.
The disturbing fact is that he just might be right, considering that Lokayukta till date has never ever taken a case to its logical end. The Lokayukta only fixes the symptom but never the problem. How can it, when it has no real teeth? Thus the Lokayukta has a big bark but absolutely no bite. It remains a mere pussy cat in the garb of a menacing tiger.
Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hedge himself said: “After a raid or arrest is made, we need to file a charge sheet after which we require relevant permission from the government to conduct further enquiry. In majority of the cases, the government never permits us to enquire into the case”. This being the situation, why is the government spending over Rs. 11 crore per year to maintain the institution of Lokayukta, which employs 902 personnel? Is it just because Lokayukta fulfills a formality to justify our existence as a modern democracy? In short, for a corrupt government servant, Lokayukta is a mere irritant that can be fixed with a few phone calls. And for a politician, more phone calls means more money.
The Lokayukta does not have “suo moto” powers to investigate. It does not have the powers to act on its own cognizance. Going about getting Lokayukta to be interested in a complaint in itself is a tedious process. The complainant also is exposed to threats as there are too many levels where information could be leaked about who is trying to trap whom.
The procedure for filing a complaint is that every complaint shall be made in Form 1 (the actual complaint form) and it has to be signed by the complainant. Then the complainant has to fill Form II which is the supporting affidavit.
After all this, a time and date is set to catch the corrupt officer red - handed. Now, suppose everything does go as planned and they do catch the corrupt officer, then what? The media goes into overdrive, people talk about it for a few days, there are discussions in public forums and a few days later the officer quietly gets bail and bides his time.
The department suspends the officer as if they are sending a message of change. But then suspension is not a punishment. It is just a normal investigative procedure followed so an officer, after a raid, will not destroy or damage the evidence at his place of work.
So instead of dismissing the officer from duty, Section 19 in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is applied. This Section basically states that the Lokayukta cannot proceed against an offender unless the government approves it. This “government permission” came into the Prevention of Corruption Act only in 1988, but why? Perhaps because before 1988, the perception was that only very junior - level government employees were corrupt so they must be punished. But once the big babus and officers too turned out to be corrupt in collusion with politicians, they added this new “need government’s permission” clause to protect themselves. That’s what happens when law - breakers are also the law - makers.
In short, how will a corrupt government ever give permission to prosecute its “feeding lines”? And so, no thanks to this clause, public officials who are caught always escape scot - free.
What is even more disturbing is that some of these officers resume duty in just over a month and soon get their promotions which makes the complainant vulnerable.
As if it wasn’t enough that Lokayukta is losing its relevance, the suspended officers are now filing defamation cases against Lokayukta officers. An IPS officer who was raided in 2009 in a disproportionate assets case filed a civil defamation case against the Lokayukta claiming a symbolic compensation of one rupee.
Lokayukta needs powers which unfortunately only the government can give. One must understand that in many cases when an officer is corrupt, it is because either he has paid money to be in that location or he has been instructed to send a certain amount of money up the ranks. When an officer pays money, it is an investment on which he wants returns.
Now the rate of return is up to the investor himself and so if he is a cruel officer, he will suck you dry. If he has a little bit of a conscience, he will go slow and follow the famous Reliance policy “Partners in growth”. The elected reps also invest in bribing our corrupt voters. So why will they empower a body that hinders their return on investment?
The bottom line is that today Lokayukta is a powerless body. It is a diagnostic center that pretends and hopes to be a hospital which cures the disease that is eating this country from the inside. Now the question is, is it better to close down Lokayukta and save the taxpayers over Rs. 11 crores a year or let it be alive with the hope that one day honest elected representatives will bestow enough powers on it to be effective?
