Supreme Court recalls its December order on lokayukta

The Supreme Court bench directed that the consequential orders in terms of the its direction to recall its order appointing Justice Virendra Singh (Retd) as state lokayukta may be issued by the authority/ functionary without delay, and compliance report be sent to the court’s registry within a week.

The bench said: “In the facts stated in the various records and correspondence, we are persuaded to hold that our order appointing Justice Virendra Singh (Retd.) as Lokayukta was on the basis of the statement made on behalf of the state of Uttar Pradesh, which now appears to be somewhat inaccurate... It is unfortunate that constitutional/statutory functionaries, in spite of prolongedmeetings, continued to have serious differences on a simple issue.”

“However, we now have on record the subsequent reservation of the Chief Justice of the high court with regard to the suitability of Shri Justice Virendra Singh (Retd) as lokayukta as expressed in the Chief Justice’s letter dated 16th December 2015 to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. We can only wish that the above reservation of the Chief Justice had been placed before us before we had passed our earlier order dated 16th December 2015, particularly when the high court was represented before us on the said date.”